notes final Flashcards
class 6 topics
Topic: Development of language and symbol use
Symbolic Development
Human capacity for symbols
Language development
Brain & Sensitive periods
Perception
Socioeconomic status
Language
-Communication system (understood by all within a community)
-Conventionalized sounds, symbols or marks for communication
-Formal system of sounds and symbols
Human capacity for symbols
-Symbols = language and nonlinguistic (maps, print, numbers etc.)
-Symbolic capacity = creative & flexible
-Unmatched in other species
-Frees us from the present
-Allows us to speak about future, past, ideas
But how?
Prerequisites of language
-A human brain
-Exposure to language (spoken or signed)
-IDS – infant directed talk/speech
-Common across cultures (Broesch & Bryant, 2013)
-Warm tone, high exaggerated pitch, increased intonation, slower speech, exaggerated facial expressions
-Infants prefer IDS
SYMBOLS
-The capacity that sets humans apart from other species is the creative and flexible use of symbols.
-Symbols are systems for 1) representing thoughts, feelings, and knowledge 2) and communicating them to others.
generativity:
using a finite set of words to produce an infinite number of sentences and ideas
Language development
Language is spoken or signed
Comprehension precedes production
sound(phonemes- words - sentences- narratives etc.
Note – you do not need to know the common errors in language learning
Critical Debates
-Is the language learning ‘mechanism’ specific to language learning – or more general social cognitive development?
-Do other animals have language?
-Critical period for language learning?
-Is language localized in the brain?
The problem of learning language
-Must determine regularities and patterns in continuous speech sounds
SPEECH SEGMENTATION
-Problem of reference (association of words and meaning)
symbol with their reference
Social context of language learning
Intersubjectivity
-Sharing common focus of attention (not necessarily visual attn.) by two or more people
Joint attention
-Baby and parent are looking at and reacting to the same thing in the world
-(pointing)
If you want your babies to learn, talk to them!
-around 9 months
parts of Language Development
Step 1 – phonological development
-mastery of the sound system
-Includes morphemes – dog (1 morpheme) vs dogs (2 morphemes)
Step 2 – semantic development
-System for expressing meaning in a language (includes words and morphemes)
Step 3 – Syntax
-Permissible combinations of words
-E.g. Mike at the chicken vs. the chicken ate mike
Step 4 – Pragmatic development
-Knowledge of the context and how language is used
Symbolic representation
-Dual representation – something can be represented mentally in two ways. It can ‘be’ something, as well as ‘stand for something’. (ie - a real object, and a symbol.)
-Very young children have great difficulty with dual representation, as demonstrated in tasks in which a child is asked to use a scale model to locate a hidden toy in a room.
-DeLoache’s scale model task
-2.5 yr olds - failed the task
-3 yr olds - passed
-BUT – when the task did not require children to make the symbol-referent connection, even the 2.5 children passed! (in the case of the shrinking room)
the closely the reference represents the symbol the more difficult it is for the child.
Note – this is not covered in your textbook but if you have any questions, visit me during L2L or office hours
Scale Model Task
-A 3-year-old child watches DeLoache hide a miniature troll doll under a pillow in a scale model of an adjacent room.
-Successful search in actual room, indicating that she appreciates the relation between the model and room.
-Successful retrieval in the scale model where she originally observed the toy being hidden.
Infant Directed Speech (IDS)
-Motherese, babytalk
-Higher pitch
-Changes in intonation
-Affect
-Exaggerated speech and facial expressions
-Repetitive
-Also, Hyper-articulation
Infant Directed Speech
-Mother’s change their speech patterns when addressing infants and young children
-Slower speech
-Higher pitch
-Smooth exaggerated prosody
-Function
-Facilitate attention
-Modulate arousal and emotion
-Communicate intentions
-Language learning
Mono- and Bi- lingual language development
-Critical period for language development < 5 years
-Evidence with ‘Genie’ and also brain damaged patients
-Benefits of bilingual learning outweigh the costs!
-Benefits – cognitive development
-Costs – lag in language development, but catch up.
Hart & Risley
-Studied 42 families, various SES backgrounds
-Examined parent-child interactions
-Quantity of utterances to the child
-The authors averaged the number of words children from different backgrounds, heard per hour
-200 words per hour (low SES)
4-000 words per hour (high SES)
what is the 30 million word gap?
A linear projection of the gap in language exposure indicated that children from families on welfare heard approximately 30 million fewer words over the first four years of life, compared to their peers from families of higher socio-economic backgrounds
class 9 emotional development and attachment
what is an emotion?
felling that we get when we are stimulated
6 basic emotions
what we express is filtered by our cognition
process and develop of emotion?
The Development of Emotions in Childhood
Key components:
-Neural responses involved in emotions
-Physiological factors, including heart, breath rate, and hormone levels
-Subjective feelings
-Cognitions or perceptions responses and subjective feelings
-Desire to take action, including desire to escape, approach, or change people or things in the environment
-Expressive behavior or cognitive interpretations of feeling state
Debates
-Relative importance of each component depends on theoretical perspective
-Innate vs. learned
-What is present throughout development and when!
-Research supports both perspectives to some degree, and no one theory has emerged as definitive.
Major Theories
-Darwin – 1872
Discrete/differential emotions theory
-Srouge
Joy/pleasure
Anger/frustration
Wariness/fear
-then, cognitions and social experiences lead to further within category distinctions and more complex forms
Discrete Emotions Theory
Argues that:
-Emotions are innate and are discrete from one another from very early in life
-Each emotion is packaged with a specific and distinctive set of bodily and facial reactions
-emotions aren’t on a continuum
The Functionalist Approach
-Emphasizes the role of the environment in emotional development
-Proposes that the basic function of emotions is to promote action toward achieving a goal
-Maintains that emotions are not discrete from one another and vary somewhat based on the social environment
All agree
Cognition and experience shape emotional development
Emotion development beginning in Infancy
-Social smiles
Infant smiles in response to social interaction
2 months (4-10 w)
-Still-Face (Tronick et al.)
Infants
Emotion milestones in first year
0-2 mom social smiles and generalized destress
2 months social smiles In response to human interaction
3-4 months tickle laughs smiling in response to play or enjoyable activity
7 months familiar vs unfamiliar wariness change to fear, fear of strangers
8 months separation anxiety, fear of strangers decreasing after 2 years
6-12 mon unexpected events funny
Emotional Intelligence (EI)
-EI is a better predictor than IQ of how well people will do in life, especially in their social lives.
-Mischel (1988)
Preschoolers’ abilities to delay gratification were found to predict their social, emotional, and academic competence many years later.
The Development of Emotional Regulation
-What is emotional regulation?
-Process of initiating, inhibiting, or modulating internal feeling states, emotion-related physiological processes, and emotion-related cognitions or behaviours in the service of accomplishing one’s goals.
TRANSITIONAL OBJECTS
Eisenberg on Emotion Regulation
- Recognizing
- Controlling
Self-Conscious (Secondary) Emotions: Embarrassment and Pride
Self-conscious emotions
Involves feelings such as embarrassment, pride, guilt, and shame that relate to sense of self and consciousness of others‘ reactions to us
15 to 24 months of age, some children start to show embarrassment when they are made the center of attention.
Situations likely to induce self-conscious emotions in children vary somewhat across cultures.
Temperament
Individual differences in emotion, activity level, and attention that are exhibited across contexts and that are present from infancy and thus thought to be genetically based
(e.g. different reactions to the same situation)
Identifying the Emotions of Others
-The first step in the development of emotional knowledge is the recognition of different emotions in others.
-By 4 to 7 months, infants can distinguish certain emotional expressions, such as happiness and surprise
-At 8 to 12 months, children demonstrate social referencing
Social Referencing
By 8-12 months, infants use the social expressions of others to modify or alter their behavior in an uncertain situation.
Attachment
Defining attachment
Historical trajectory of the concept
Measurements and evidence
Cross-cultural validity
What is attachment?
An emotional bond with a specific person that is enduring across space and time.
Infant attachment
-Extended period of dependency
-Allows for social bond (and social learning, communication)
-Caregiver responsiveness – timely, appropriate, responding to infant bids
Sensitive parenting
Responsive
Timely
Appropriate
-In infancy, this is specific:
Contingency
Mirroring
Infant directed speech
How does the early caregiver-infant relationship shape later development?: Historical overview
Observations of children in orphanages
Video observations of children in orphanages (Spitz, 1946)
Harry Harlow
bowlbys attachment theory
Mary aisnworth
Isolation (lack of sufficient bond)
-Physical care & nutrition is insufficient
-Institutional care in the first years of life typically:
-hinders optimal social, emotional and cognitive development
Evidence:
Orphanages, Renee Spitz (1930’s and 40’s)
Refugee children (WWII), Bowlby (1953)
Romanian Orphanage & adoptions, Ames (1990’s)
Bowlby
-Attachment system between an infant and mother is a long-ago evolved system
-Human bond is ancient and evolved during the period of “environment of evolutionary adaptation” (EEA)
-Children are biologically predisposed to develop attachments with caregivers as a means of increasing the chances of their own survival
T-he mother is the secure base providing an infant or toddler with a sense of security that makes it possible to explore the environment.
Ainsworth
-Extensive observations of infants in US and Uganda
-Observations during brief separations and reunions with caregivers
-Allows insight into the quality of the attachment relationship – the extent to which the child could use the adult as a secure base,
Strange Situation (SS) Procedure
-developed by Ainsworth
-Used to assess infants’ attachment to primary caregivers.
-Seven episodes
-including 2 separations and reunions with the caregiver
I-nteractions with a stranger when alone and when caregiver is present
Attachment Categories
-Secure attachment
Child has had a high-quality, relatively unambivalent relationship with his or her attachment figure.
2/3 of American middle class children
-Insecure
-Insecure resistant (or ambivalent) attachment
Infants and young children are clingy and stay close to the caregiver rather than explore environment.
-Insecure avoidant attachment
Infants and young children seem indifferent and sometimes avoid cargiver.
-Disorganized / disoriented
No consistent way of coping with the stress of the strange situation
Four phases of attachment
-Preattachment (0 – 6wks)
Infant produces innate signals that bring others to his/her side and is comforted by the interactions.
-Attachment-in-the-making (6wks – 8 mos)
Infants begin to respond preferentially to familiar people.
-Clear-cut attachment (8 mos – 1 ½ - 2 yrs)
Infants actively seek contact with his/her caregiver and shows ‘separation protest or distress’ when the caregiver departs. [SEPARATION ANXIETY]
-Reciprocal relationships (1 ½ - 2 yrs …)
Active role in developing working partnerships with caregivers.
Outcome of attachment phases
-An enduring emotional tie uniting the infant and the caregiver.
-Internal working model of attachment – a mental representation of the self, of attachment figures, and of relationships in general.
-Guides children’s interactions with caregivers and other people in infancy and at older ages.
Elinor Ames, 1997 (SFU, psych)
3 groups:
Romanian orphanage
Early Adoption
Canadian Born
Measured cognitive, motor and social/emotional milestones as reported from parent, tested by experimenter and observed during home visits.
placement in foster care study
Results:
Foster care placement <24 mos = fared better on attachment outcomes
High cog status = better attachment outcomes in CAU
Findings/Interpretation:
Evidence for a sensitive/critical period in development
Mediated by cognitive status
Harry Harlow
-Bonding to a nurturing mother is essential to mental health and normal development in primates, and the blueprint bond from which all other attachments are modeled
-Deprived monkeys of social interactions
-Findings with cloth vs wire mothers indicates that there is more to parenting than food and survival
Harry Harlow
Study 1 – cloth / wire mothers
Study 2 – total isolation
Study 3 – critical periods
Harlow Study 1: Cloth/Wire
½ monkeys were raised with a cloth, non-nutritive mother; ½ monkeys were raised with a wire, nutritive mother.
Monkeys showed a preference for the cloth, non-nutritive monkey, spending most of their time on the cloth doll while feeding on the wire doll.
Harlow Study 2 – Total Isolation
Total social isolation resulted in aggressive and antisocial behavioral tendencies.
Females who were raised in isolation became ‘bad’ mothers – neglecting and abusing their offspring.
Harlow Study 3 – Critical Periods
The number of days an infant monkey was raised in isolation impacted their behavior when entering into social groups.
Basic Tenets of Attachment Theory(Keller, 2013)
- Monotropy: infants have an innate and inborn capacity to attach primarily to a single caregiver or attachment figure.
2.Stranger Anxiety: emerging around 8 months, infants begin to show distress toward unfamiliar others; may be culturally variable.
3.Definition of attachment: hierarchical model with mothers at the top.
Generalizability of Attachment theory
-Ethnographic evidence questions the basic tenets of attachment theory
-Multiple caregivers
-Stranger anxiety
-Mothers as one among many caregivers (not hierarchical)
class 11 others in mind
Social understanding
-Understanding others’ minds
Theory of mind
False belief
Perspective taking
-Understanding the self (in relation to others and the world)
Theory of mind
a. What is it?
b. How has it been studied?
c. What are some main findings in the literature regarding theory of mind development?
d. What are the different theoretical perspectives?
A. Theory of mind – what is it?
The ability to attribute mental states to the self and others.
The ability to know that others can have mental states that are different from your own.
e.g.) beliefs, desires, intentions.
An essential part of human psychology.
Beliefs – your knowledge
Desires – what you want
Intentions – your goals
Self understanding
-The self is distinct from others
Self-other distinction unfolds rapidly over the first 2 years of life
-My thoughts, beliefs, desires, and intentions may be different than yours.
E.g. Cookie example from your textbook
How has it been studied?
-Explicit ToM tasks: False-belief (sally-ann) tasks
Change of location
Surprise content
-Implicit theory of mind tasks
w/ infants
-Adult interviews and experiments
Barrett, Broesch, Baillargeon et al., 2013
-Spontaneous response task
Establish longer looking time –
Matched / unmatched pictures
-Test: Looking time at pause
Opacity of the mind
-Cultural norms surrounding discussing mental states
-Claim that one can never know what another is thinking
-Therefore the goal of attaining a ‘theory of mind’ is not applicable or may have a different developmental trajectory
Cultural differences in opacity of the mind
-Mayer & Trauble, 2014
Samoan children
Two separate studies
Age range, large N
Cultural differences
Hypotheses (Mayar & Trauble)
-H1 –ON TIME If universal, children may improve significantly between 3 and 5 years
Could be sensitive to socio-cultural factors such as:
-H2 – LATER opacity of the mind therefore later ToM
-H3 – EARLIER multiple children playing together (possible sibling effect) = earlier ToM
Mayar & Trauble
Study 1
3-14 yr olds (n=288)
186 Savai’i (traditional)
102 Upolu (less traditional – block houses)
Classic false belief task
Change of location task
“Where will the child look for (su’e) the item?”
Results
H2 supported: later ToM
Study 2
4- 8 yrs
55 children (which island?)
Replication w/ different linguistic term
Su’e: sometimes means ‘find’
“Touch first”
Results
H2 supported: later ToM
Linguistic goal: to communicate “where will he look for”
Linguistic reality: “where will he find”
Study 2 “which cup will he touch first”
Callaghan et al., 2005
-Synchrony in the onset of mental state understanding across diverse societies:
Peru, India, Canada, Samoa, Thailand
Theory of Mind
-Theoretical perspectives
Socio-cultural perspective
Nativist perspective
-Methods
Implicit false belief
Explicit false belief
-Self–other distinction
-Cross-cultural variability (and interpretations)
culture and social context
3 points
- Developmental psychology research may not represent human development (representation and generalizability)
- There are similarities and differences across cultures in child development
- The cultural differences are not well understood or explained
WEIRD science: Generalizable?
the weirdest people in the world
-pulled out all the paper that were cross cultural
-if info in textbooks were generalizable for all societies
-traditional textbook or Psych articles are based on urban English societies
-people in other societies are performing differently
-our science is not generalizable
WEIRD science: Representative?
-since this paper was written, have we been doing a better job?
no
-we are still only testing about 5% of our population
-this is a problem because we aren’t representing the worlds whole population
Unscientific, unethical
this is problem because it is unscientific and unethical and a problem to assume that is represents the rest of the world.
Range of human variation
why an dhow to incorporate culture into development science
-most of the research is based on a small subset of the world population
-their potential could be way further then were assuming
age most infants will develop milestones in motor development
milestones are used to see if babies are in the typical range to develop those milestones
-new research that done have all the milestones like skipping crawling
-or they outside of the range that exists
-we could be missing out on important information about how these milestones occur.
-we’re not fully understand the complex interaction between early experience and biology
-range of possibilities that we don’t know.
Disconnect
anthropology of childhood
early developmental experiences look very different when you look around the. globe.
disconnect from what the anthropologist are saying and from the developmental psychologists.
lack of directed teaching and language exposure
why is there a disconnect between the anthropologists
Temperament
Cultural differences in infant attention and activity
We examined infant activity level and attention in 45 infants living in two diverse socio-cultural contexts: rural island societies in the South Pacific (n = 21) and urban Western societies in North America (n = 24). Infants were 8.8 months old (range 6-12 months, SD = 2.07). Infants and mothers were observed for ten minutes in a face-to-face interaction and later coded for activity level and attention. We identified and compared the frequency of infants’ motor movements, such as rolling over and crawling, as well as, any shift in their gaze. Our results indicate that infants living in urban cities in North America produced more frequent motor movements and shifted their gaze more frequently than infants living in rural, island societies in the South Pacific. We suspect these differences reflect differences in early social experience as well as different ecological niches. These findings highlight the complex interplay of development and experience, starting in the first few months of life.
Cultural differences in temperament at 8 months
social experience is effecting infants as early ad 8 months of age
Father’s Acoustic modification differed between cultures
The ways that fathers modify their speech when addressing infants is culturally dependent. they changed the average pitch of the speech but North American fathers didn’t adjust their speech.
-infant directed speech.
is culturally dependent.
Chapters 13 & 14: Moral Development
Learning Objectives
-Where does our morality come from?
-What are the developmental stages of moral development according to Piaget, according to Kohlberg?
-Developmental trajectory – influence of parenting and early experience?
-Individual differences
-Prosocial behaviors
What is morality?
-Morals refer to an individual’s own principles regarding right and wrong
-Moral reasoning and outcome: different ways individuals can understand an act.
-individual temperament
-what is right and wrong, everyone has their own beliefs
-how we understand morality in others
Children and Morality – necessary features?
conscience- be concerned about acting in a moral manner and feel guilty when they are not acting
know right from wrong
know why certain actions are moral and immoral
Piaget
-Influence of Peers > Influence of Adults
-Children learn via Games with peers
-Outcome - Intention becomes more important
-Possibly underestimated children’s propensity to factor in intentions
Piaget’s stages: Heteronomous morality
Heteronomous morality: < 7 yrs, rules, laws
-Possibly due to cognitive belief that rules are things that exist outside of the mind
-Possibly due to social experience with parents placing rules (not sure about this one, given that there’s such variation in parenting)
Piaget’s stages: The Transition Period
The Transition Period: 7/8 - 10 yrs, learning through peer interactions
-More egalitarian play & give and take
-They begin to value fairness and equality
Piaget’s stages: Autonomous Morality
Autonomous Morality: 11/12yrs, rules are products of social agreement and can be changed if the majority of a group agrees to do so.
-Fairness and equality important factors when constructing rules
-Punishments should fit the crime
-Motives and intentions matter
Piaget’s Stages of Moral Development
Morality of constraint (younger than 7 or 8 years)
-Children see rules as unchangeable and non-negotiable.
-A rule is a rule because an authority figure says it is.
-Children overlook intentions of the actor; morality is evaluated in terms of objective consequences.
Transitional period (between 7 and 10 years)
-Children spend more time with peers and learn that rules can be changed.
-Children learn how to appreciate another person’s perspective and consider intentions.
Autonomous morality (older than 10 years)
-Children believe that rules are social contracts that can be negotiated and re-negotiated.
-They consider multiple people and perspectives.
Kohlberg & Moral Reasoning
Theory:
-Moral reasoning is the basis for ethical behavior.
-A stage theory.
‘Reasoning’ refers to the ways in which you solve an ethical dilemma.
Piaget and Kohlberg studied moral reasoning in young children and adolescents.
Kohlberg’s methods:
Interview
-Males (starting b/t 10-16 yrs)
-Longitudinal (every 3 years for 20 years)
-Moral Dilemmas (stories presenting a conflict b/t two moral values)
-“What should the actor do and why?”
Kohlberg’s ‘Heinz Dilemma’
In Europe, a woman was near death from cancer. There was one drug that the doctors thought might save her. A druggist in the same town had discovered it, but he was charging ten times what the drug cost him to make. The sick woman’s husband Heinz, went to everyone he knew to borrow the money but he could only get together half of what it cost. The druggist refused to sell the drug for less or let Heinz pay later. So Heinz got desperate and broke into the man’s store to steal the drug for his wife. Should Heinz have done that? Why?
Think about the following dilemma.
What’s happening? Which values are Kohlberg pitting against one another? Obeying the law and the value of human life.
Process of reasoning
Kohlberg: The way an individual reasons, not the content of the response.
Important factors
1) actively grappling with moral issues and noticing weaknesses in one’s reasoning
2) gaining perspective taking – enabling the resolution of moral conflicts in more effective ways.
As we go through the stages, think about ‘perspective taking’
Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Reasoning
Pre-conventional reasoning (Stage 1 and 2)
1. -Children are focused on punishment and how to avoid it.
2. -Children follow the law in order to avoid or to mitigate punishment.
Conventional reasoning (Stage 3 and 4)
3. -Children recognize that rules are social contracts and follow rules and laws in order to preserve and promote
4. social relationships and social order.
Post-conventional reasoning (Stage 5 and 6)
5-6 -Reasoning according to ideals or moral principles.
criticisms of kohl bergs
-too masculine
focused not enough on caring and emphasis
Gilligan argued on feminism work
Sex / Gender
-Gilligan (1982) argued that feminine morality emphasizes an ‘ethic of care’
-Women in U.S. & Canada use these moral reasoning tools more than men:
-Caring
-Responsiveness
-Empathetic Perspective Taking
-Men either focus on justice or both justice and care, rarely privileging ‘care’.
Cognitive Requirements
-Assessing other’s goals, intentions, desires, beliefs.
-Acting appropriately (rectifying the situation), at a cost to oneself
-Should we punish others who hinder?
Kiley Hamlin’s research (UBC) suggests that even 8 month olds do this!
Prosocial Behavior
Prosocial behavior:
-helpful action that benefits other people without necessarily providing any direct benefits to the person performing the act, and may even involve a risk for the person who helps
Altruism:
-behavior that reflects an unselfish concern for the welfare of others – often involves some personal cost
Development of prosociality
-Begins with the capacity for empathy and sympathy (altruistic motives)
-Empathy: an emotional response to another’s emotional state or condition (e.g. sadness, poverty).
-Sympathy: is a feeling of concern for another in response to the other’s emotional state or condition.
Dev’t of Prosocial Behaviors
14 months:
-children become emotionally distressed when they see other people who are upset
-Children show concern for an adult who has been hurt
18-25 months:
-Children share a personal object with an adult whom they saw being harmed by another
2-4 yrs
-Helping: Children will help someone get something out of reach
Sharing, Helping, Comforting
-Sharing resources, helping others and comforting: Children are ready to engage in these behaviors around the same age, but there are individual differences in the spontaneous propensity to do so (see textbook).
Proactive and Reactive Helping
Two conditions – experimental and control
Two age groups – 3 and 5
Manipulated the INTENTION of the experimenter (likes cans picked up, doesn’t like cans picked up)
Procedure: Cans fall; she isn’t looking… what do the kids do? (proactive)
(note in reactive she reaches)
Rochat et al., Distributive Justice
-200 x 3-7 year olds
-Seven societies
-How does a sense of fairness develop?
In general, “Western” research has found:
-Children become more prosocial with age
-Self-focus shift to an other-focus
shift from 3 to 5 years of being less selfish
