PSY311 2. Theories and Perspectives Flashcards
The Psychoanalytic Viewpoint: Sigmund Freud
Psychosexual theory
The Psychoanalytic Viewpoint: Sigmund Freud
- People are driven by urges that are viewed as undesirable by society
- Eros and Thanatos instincts
- Parenting shapes children
- Id,ego,superego
- Five stages of psychosexual development
The Psychoanalytic Viewpoint: Sigmund Freud
Freud was important because he challenged prevailing notions of his era
Driven by motives we’re largely outside our consciousness
New-born babies are driven by eros (life instinct: promotes survival - eating + having sex) + thanatos (death instinct: murder)
The Psychoanalytic Viewpoint: Sigmund Freud
Children were to be seen and not heard
Personalities shaped by early life experiences - what makes parenting important for children
The Psychoanalytic Viewpoint: Sigmund Freud
Id - newborn - basic + animal urges
Ego - age 3 - meeting basic needs in realistic way + keeps the id in check
Superego - age 6-11 - basis for one’s conscious, children start to take on morals of parents
They start to know what is good and bad without being told
Stages of Psychosexual Development
Oral Anal Phallic Latency Genital Birth-Age 1 Ages 1-3 Ages 3-6 Ages 6-11 Ages 12+ Feeding. Pleasure from sucking, chewing, biting. Toilet training. Pleasure from urination and defecation. Anxiety from Oedipus/Electra complexes. Pleasure from genital stimulation. Ego develops. Repression and rechanneling. Superego develops. Healthy and acceptable expression
Stages of Psychosexual Development
Pathology from Unresolved Childhood Conflicts
Emphasis on sexual conflicts - any kind of erotic action
As the instinct occurs, it shifts through different body parts
Stages of Psychosexual Development
Oedipal: oracle told father and son he was to kill his father and marry his mother, then unknowingly fulfilled his prophecy
Every little boy desires his mother and envies/competes with his father, which in turn creates anxiety
Boys identify with their father and emulates them - formulation of gender identity
Stages of Psychosexual Development
Latency: repression of sexual urges and focuses on school
Genital: heteronormative idea of healthy sexuality
Stages of Psychosexual Development
Parents must handle all conflicts appropriately to avoid arrested development and being fixated on a stage
The Tip of the Iceberg
Pioneered unconscious motivation: most psychic experiences blow conscious level
The Tip of the Iceberg
Preconscious: stored knowledge and memories
Unconscious: repressed - violent, selfish, sexual urges
The Tip of the Iceberg
first to suggest childhood experiences contributes to adulthood and personality
emotional development - how love can affect our development
Erik Erikson
Psychosocial theory
• Neo-Freudian
• Children are not passive
Erik Erikson
• Social and cultural
aspects of development over sexual urges
• Eight life crises (psychosocial stages)
– Lifespan development
Erik Erikson
built on Freud’s concepts
Children play active role in development
Erik Erikson
8 Stages - Crises needed to be resolved
Didn’t stop at childhood - went up to 65+
idea that development continues after childhood
Stages of Psychosocial Development
Trust vs. mistrust Birth-Age 1 Have basic needs cared for Mothers Autonomy vs. shame and doubt Ages 1-3 Learn to be independent Parents Initiative vs. guilt Ages 3-6 Responsibilities and conflicts Families Industry vs. inferiority Ages 6-12 Attempts at mastery, comparison Teachers and peers Identity vs. role confusion Ages 12-20 Crossroad,“Who am I?” Society of peers Intimacy vs. isolation Ages 20-40 Form friendships and/or intimate relationship Lovers, spouses, and close friends Generativity vs. stagnation Ages 40-65 Productive in work, responsible for family Spouses, children, and social norms Ego integrity vs. despair Age 65+ Look back at life and evaluate
Stages of Psychosocial Development
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Stages of Psychosocial Development
Right - main agent of socialization
Identity vs role confusion: what is my role in society?
in post industrial society it takes longer to form an identity
intimacy vs isolation: adulthood
more relatable
Criticisms: quite vague about causes of development
more descriptive view and left explanation to others
Stages of Psychosocial Development
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Stages of Psychosocial Development
-Middle is a healthy range
standardized test can inform practice
Problems with the Psychoanalytic Viewpoint
• No empirical proof – Difficult/impossible to research
objectively
• Other good theories exist
Basing below consciousness, difficult to get evidence
II. The Behaviorist Viewpoint: John B. Watson
“Psychology as the behaviorist views it is a purely objective experimental branch of natural science. Its theoretical goal is the prediction and control of behavior. Introspection forms no essential part of its methods, nor is the scientific value of its data dependent upon the readiness with which they lend themselves to interpretation in terms of consciousness. The behaviorist, in his efforts to get a unitary scheme of animal response, recognizes no dividing line between man and brute…” (Watson, 1913, p. 158)
II. The Behaviorist Viewpoint: John B. Watson
arguing for more objective methodology
at the time, introspection was popular - describing mental processes
• Habits as building blocks
II. The Behaviorist Viewpoint: John B. Watson
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II. The Behaviorist Viewpoint: John B. Watson
• Little Albert study (1920)
II. The Behaviorist Viewpoint: John B. Watson
arguing for more objective methodology
at the time, introspection was popular - describing mental processes
firmly assigned psychology to the natural sciences
trying to push it toward hard science
set of goals: prediction and control of behaviour
completely rejected introspection - controversial
accepted evolutionary model of behaviour
animals and humans are the same - humans should be seen as an animal
How children turn out is due to nurture alone
Believes in tabula rasa
viewpoint was quite extreme
Habit: association between stimulus and learned response
Fear could be elicited by loud noise or taking mother away in infancy
Older range develop a wider range of stimuli and responses for fear due to conditioning
Little Albert: 11 month old infant - paired Albert touching the rat with loud noise
When rat was presented alone, he was conditioned to fear
He generalized the stimulus - he was afraid of rabbits
They could only test whether it could be conditioned and if it generalized
Went into industrial-organizational psych after academia
II. The Behaviorist Viewpoint: John B. Watson
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II. The Behaviorist Viewpoint: John B. Watson
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Did Watson Fail?
- Was never able to predict all responses from the stimulus
- Data never fully supported all his claims • But his lasting impact:
- By 1930s brought behaviorism to the centre of American experimental psychology
- Helped make psychology more scientific
- Ideas consistent with the American ideal
- Bridged the gap between basic and applied psychology
Did Watson Fail?
American Ideal: can do anything
Applied: Dealing with phobia
Applied: Dealing with phobia
Did Watson Fail?
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Did Watson Fail?
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Did Watson Fail?
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B.F. Skinner
RadicalBehaviorism
• Operantconditioning– behavior “operates” on the environment to produce an outcome
– We repeat actions that produce favorable outcomes
– We suppress actions that produce unfavorable outcomes
B.F. Skinner
-rewarding outcomes: reproduce actions
we unknowingly teach children how to act through parenting styles
aggression develops after reinforcement which can take many forms
Radical: maintained emphasis on observable behaviours + different mediators such as emotions and thoughts
B.F. Skinner
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B.F. Skinner
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B.F. Skinner
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Albert Bandura
Social-Cognitive Theory
• Observational learning
• BoboDollstudy(1965)
Albert Bandura
Skinner placed too much emphasis on development from external stimulus and not enough on thoughts and emotions
Humans are more complex
We’re more affected by what we perceive will happen than the actual consequence
observational: learn from other people (models)
Albert Bandura
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Albert Bandura
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Bobo Doll Study
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Bobo Doll Study
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Bobo Doll Study
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Reciprocal Determinism
Cognitive abilities Physical characteristics Beliefs and attitudes
Behaviour
Motor responses Verbal responses Social interactions
Environment
Child
Physical surroundings Family and friends Other social influences
Reciprocal Determinism
-Watson - environmental determinism: child’s behaviour was influenced only by environment
Bandura believed that children were not passive in learning: they had to pay attention, encode info and choose to behave aggressively
He believed in reciprocity
Reciprocal Determinism
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Reciprocal Determinism
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Reciprocal Determinism
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Reciprocal Determinism
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Strengths and Limitations of the Behaviorist Viewpoint
• Theories are very precise and testable – Many scientific contributions
• Contributions to applied and clinical work
• Downplays the importance of genetics in
development
• Low external validity
• Ignores the child’s level of cognitive development
Strengths and Limitations of the Behaviorist Viewpoint
Clinical work: behavioural modification techniques
Token economy: positive reinforcement techniques in teaching
Cons:
both genetics and environment important
most studies were done in the lab - we need to put them in their natural environment in order to generalize
doesn’t talk about child’s reasoning abilities
not all children are the same cognitively
Strengths and Limitations of the Behaviorist Viewpoint
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Strengths and Limitations of the Behaviorist Viewpoint
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Strengths and Limitations of the Behaviorist Viewpoint
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Strengths and Limitations of the Behaviorist Viewpoint
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III. The Cognitive-Developmental Viewpoint: Jean Piaget
• 4 stages of cognitive development – invariant sequence • Cognitive schemes • Adaptation – Assimilation – Accommodation
III. The Cognitive-Developmental Viewpoint: Jean Piaget
-studied in 1920s - created standardized IQ tests
Children of the same age gave similar answers
Asked children about thought processes
invariant: in order to progress, you need to master abilities in previous stage
patterns of thoughts used to organize the world information and relationships among them
Adaptation: adapting to world
Assimilation: when children incorporate new experiences into existing schemas
Accommodation: makes changes in existing schema to adapt to new experiences
first try to assimilate - less cognitive load
accommodation occurs more as people mature
III. The Cognitive-Developmental Viewpoint: Jean Piaget
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III. The Cognitive-Developmental Viewpoint: Jean Piaget
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III. The Cognitive-Developmental Viewpoint: Jean Piaget
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III. The Cognitive-Developmental Viewpoint: Jean Piaget
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Stages of Cognitive Development
Stage Age Key Skills Key Limitations Sensorimotor Bir th-Age 2 Voluntary imitation, inner experimentation, object permanence Deferred imitation Preoperational Age 2- Age 7
Stages of Cognitive Development
Symbolic function, pretend play. egocentrism
Conser vation (reversibility and compensation)
Concrete- Operational
Age 7- Ages 11/12
Logical thinking, seriation, transitivity
Hypothetical reasoning
Formal- Operational
Ages 11/12+
Hypothetico-deductive reasoning, egocentrism (imaginary audience, personal fable)
Stages of Cognitive Development
sensorimotor: dramatic cognitive advancements - most throughout life
6 substages
coordinate sensory input and motor responses
ability to imitate becomes more complex and fine tuned
deferred imitation: reproducing actions at a later time
at age 2: when someone leaves they wave
inner experimentation: 18 months - figuring things out in head
they usually do experimentation
Object permanence: realization that things still exist even without seeing, hearing, smelling, or feeling them
they can find where the object is hidden
Preoperational: playing is crucial for development
increase social, emotional, and intelectual developmement
egocentricism: they view world from own perspective, don’t have theory of mind
2 mountains task: sit at different ends
at the child’s end would put different objects, child assumes that you have same perspective as him/her
cognitive perspective taking: lack of empathy and sympathy
conservation: failure to realize that if you change way something look, you are not changing the properties of that object
need to have concept of reversibility (backwards in head) + compensation (focus on 2 things at once)
Concrete: capable of seriation - organizing things in quantifiable dimension
e.g. order from longest to shortest
Formal: thinking about ideas (abstract concepts + hypothetical situations)
egocentrism: imaginary audience (feel like everyone is watching you) + personal fable (feel like everything that happens to them is important and unique, think they are special and immune)
Stages of Cognitive Development
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Stages of Cognitive Development
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Stages of Cognitive Development
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Object Permanence
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Object Permanence
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Object Permanence
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Object Permanence
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Conservation
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Conservation
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Conservation
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Conservation
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Criticisms of the Cognitive-Developmental Viewpoint
- Much of Piaget’s research was anecdotal or with his own children
- Some theories have been proven incorrect – Underestimated children’s reasoning abilities
- Stages may not occur in an invariant sequence
Criticisms of the Cognitive-Developmental Viewpoint
• Ignores cultural and social influences on
development
• But large impact on education and field of social cognition, valuable framework for cognitive development
Criticisms of the Cognitive-Developmental Viewpoint
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Criticisms of the Cognitive-Developmental Viewpoint
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Criticisms of the Cognitive-Developmental Viewpoint
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Criticisms of the Cognitive-Developmental Viewpoint
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I. Evolutionary Theory
Ethology – study of human or animal behavior from a biological perspective
• Konrad Lorenz Imprinting in geese, natural selection
• John Bowlby
Adaptive significance of crying
• Sensitive period, in humans first 3 years
I. Evolutionary Theory
-Lorenz:
studied 2 groups of geese: 1 that he raised, other raised by the mother
they thought he was their mother
different species are born with biological mechanisms products of evolution that help infants survive
Geese that could imprint on their mothers would survive
Thus evolution occurred through natural selection
Bowlby:
crying is a distress signal to get their needs met
it helps form an emotional attachment to caregivers
critical period: geese 13-16 hours where imprinting occurs, afterward, doesn’t happen
sensitive period: humans more adaptable
more sensitive at this time to environmental influences
abilities and skills can develop outside this period, but it’s more difficult
I. Evolutionary Theory
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I. Evolutionary Theory
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I. Evolutionary Theory
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Is Altruism Adaptive?
-• Survival of the fittest?
• Humans are social animals • Empathy is present at birth
– Sagi & Hoffman (1976) • Mirror neurons
Is Altruism Adaptive?
-not congruent with evolutionary standpoint
humans as a social species developed a tendency for prosocial behaviour to help us live and work together
people who were more social survived to pass their genes
Mere-cats: several watch over the den and scream to alert everyone, sacrificing themselves
Empathy roots are present at birth
only the babies who heard the sound of a real baby crying started to cry themselves, not when they heard fake computer crying and no sound at all
mirror neurons: cells that fire when they witness an event and reproduce the same event
Is Altruism Adaptive?
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Is Altruism Adaptive?
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II. Behavioral Genetics
• Study of how genotypes and environment contribute to phenotypes
• Biological basis for why we differ (variation among species)
• Methods of studying heritability: – Selective breeding (animals)
– Family studies (humans)
• Twin design
• Adoption design
II. Behavioral Genetics
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II. Behavioral Genetics
-genotypes: genes inherited + phenotype: how genetics are expressed
twins may have same genotype, but they don’t turn out exactly the same
heritability: how much traits can be attributed to genetics?
- how good rats were are maze running
- he bred 2 types of rats (bright and dull)
- controlled for environmental influence
- each generation slowly either better and better or worse and worse
- concluded that maze running can be inherited
- study has been replicated
family studies
- twin design: if identical twins raised together are more similar than fraternal twins or when raised aparat
- adoption design: if adopted people are more similar to adoptive parents or biological parents
II. Behavioral Genetics
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II. Behavioral Genetics
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II. Behavioral Genetics
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Three Genotype/Environment Interactions
1 Passive genotype/environmental correlation
– Parents both pass down genes and also create environments that suit those genes
• Important early in life
2 Evocative genotype/environmental correlation
– Children’s genes affect their environments • Important throughout life
3 Active genotype/environmental correlation
– Children seek out environments that suit their genes • Important as the child matures
Three Genotype/Environment Interactions
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Three Genotype/Environment Interactions
=genes can change our environment
1. e.g. introverted parents pass down gene, but also may not have many social gatherings at their house
hard to differentiate where trait comes from
- e.g. introverted children are more withdrawn
don’t make friends as easily, thus remain more introverted - e.g. seek out chess club, than debate club which perpetuates introversion
Three Genotype/Environment Interactions
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Three Genotype/Environment Interactions
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Three Genotype/Environment Interactions
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Three Genotype/Environment Interactions
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III. Ecological Systems Theory
• Uri Bronfenbrenner (1979) • “Asetofnestedstructures,each inside the next, like... Russian dolls” • Microsystem – immediate setting • Mesosystem – interconnections among microsystems
III. Ecological Systems Theory
-• Exosystem – environments outside the
child’s immediate world
• Macrosystem – broad context in which all other systems are embedded
• Chronosystem – development occurs over time and its course can be influenced by changes in the child and/or the environment
III. Ecological Systems Theory
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III. Ecological Systems Theory
-most detailed analysis of environment
microsystem: e.g. family + classroom
mesosystem: e.g. parents more engaged in children’s learning have more success in school
exosystem: things that have indirect effect on child’s life
e. g. parent’s work-life - parent is in bad mood affecting their parenting
macrosystem: e.g. culture, social class
chronosystem: events that happen during childhood
e. g. divorce that occurs at 3, differently affects them if they were 16
we can conceptualize the influence of factors such as parenting
doesn’t take into account how they process experiences or the biological factors
III. Ecological Systems Theory
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III. Ecological Systems Theory
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IV. Modern Cognitive Theories: 1. Sociocultural Theory
• LevVygotsky
• Culture has important influences on development
– Elementary mental functions higher mental functions
– Tools of intellectual adaptation
• Early social interactions shape our characteristics and skills
IV. Modern Cognitive Theories: 1. Sociocultural Theory
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IV. Modern Cognitive Theories: 1. Sociocultural Theory
-Builds on Piaget
culture transforms elementary functions that lead to higher mental functions
Vygotsky concerned with how others help with development
Guided learning: how early social interactions shape skills
IV. Modern Cognitive Theories: 1. Sociocultural Theory
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IV. Modern Cognitive Theories: 1. Sociocultural Theory
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IV. Modern Cognitive Theories: 1. Sociocultural Theory
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Guided Learning
- Zone of proximal development (ZPD) • Scaffolding
* Private speech, inner speech – language!
Guided Learning
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Guided Learning
-ZPD: sweet spot between what a child already knows and the things beyond level of comprehension
things that child can do with guidance from someone more cognitively mature
this is how they learn best
Scaffolding: not giving something too easy for the child, but also not too hard it’s beyond them
with a little help and motivation, they can learn to do things by themselves
Inner Speech: conversations with ourselves
speech mediator for learning
young children practice private speech - use verbal instructions to guide themselves
as we get older, we don’t have to vocalize it
private speech can still occur in adulthood
Guided Learning
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Guided Learning
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Guided Learning
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Modern Cognitive Theories:
2. Social Information-Processing Perspective
• Fritz Heider (1958)
• Continuous, incremental (no stages!) • Human motives:
1 the need to make meaning
2 the need to control • Attributions
– internal vs. external causes
– We are products of how we interpret social situations
Modern Cognitive Theories:
2. Social Information-Processing Perspective
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Modern Cognitive Theories:
2. Social Information-Processing Perspective
way children process information they learn
information processing becomes more complex as we age
motives: can’t make meaning and lack of control can lead to mental health issues
attributions:
we try to explain why behaviours happen
attribute to either internal or external cause
e.g. kids walking down hallway and get knocked over
internal cause - kid was a bully
external cause - crowded hallway and it was an accident
depending on attribution changes us
e.g. kid would be more angry if he made an internal attribution
Modern Cognitive Theories:
2. Social Information-Processing Perspective
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Modern Cognitive Theories:
2. Social Information-Processing Perspective
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Modern Cognitive Theories:
2. Social Information-Processing Perspective
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Modern Cognitive Theories:
2. Social Information-Processing Perspective
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Modern Cognitive Theories:
2. Social Information-Processing Perspective
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