Psych Unit 11 Flashcards
Schema
a way that adults access info from long-term memory
- like a script – you make a schema of what you do at a restaurant (get seated, look at the menu)
- a cluster of concepts to understand the world
- mental organization as kids start learning about the environment
Assimilation
child adds new info to their schema WITHOUT needing to revise the existing schema
ex: kid’s schema about dogs is: 4 legs, furry
- anything that has 4 legs and is furry = dog
- kid saw a different dog on the street and saw it had 4 legs and was furry – now that dog is added to its schema without revision
Accommodation
child has pre-existing schema and new info comes in which CONTRADICTS the existing schema
- now the child must REVISE the schema
ex: child’s schema for dogs is 4 legs and furry = dog
- child sees a cat and thinks it’s a dog because it has 4 legs and is furry
- now child has to make a new schema because not all 4 legs and furry = dog
Piaget’s 4 stages of development
sensorimotor, preoperational, Concrete Operational, formal operational
Sensorimotor
birth - 2 years-old
- child interacts and experiences everything through their senses
- learn from putting things in their mouths and touching stuff
- they focus on the immediate present
cognitive milestone: how we know that the kid is ready to move on to the next stage
object permanence: if done right, can move on to next stage
- a child knows that the object still is there even when they can’t see or hear it anymore
ex: mom shows the kid a bear and then hides the bear under a blanket
- if the child says that the bear is under the blanket, then they move onto to next stage
- if the child thinks the bear went away, then you can conclude that the child isn’t ready to move on to next stage
Preoperational
2-6 years-old
- child can’t manipulate ideas
egocentrisism: child can’t understand points of view other than their own
ex: if alice is explaining her experience with her dog, the other kids are unable to relate even though they have dogs (they can only think about their experiences with their dogs)
ex: a sandcastle
- kid can’t see part of the sandcastle from where they’re standing so they assume that part just doesn’t exist
Conservation: child doesn’t understand the amount of something is the same even if it looks different
ex: pouring the same amount of water into a tall skinny glass and a short wide glass
- if child thinks the water is = they can move to next stage
- if child thinks the tall skinny glass has more water = failed test
Concrete Operational
6-12 years-old
- they think logically and can manipulate ideas, but don’t understand abstract concepts
ex: giving kid a word problem
- kid could solve the problem but would have to use their hands or draw it out
- children learn the best through hands-on learning
Cognitive Milestone (moving from Preoperational to Concrete Operational)
conservation of volume test
- give kids two glasses: one is tall and skinny and other is short and wide
*if child says that one of the glasses has less juice than the other, they aren’t ready to be in concrete operational stage
*if child says that the diff. Glasses have the same amount, then they are ready to be in the concrete operational stage
*kids who fail the test don’t have abstract thinking yet
*kids who pass can think about quantity in the abstract - they can logically know that before the two glasses had the same amount of juice and even though they’re in diff glasses now, they still have the same amount because no juice went anywhere else
Formal Operational
12+ years-old
- kids understand abstract concepts (what-if questions)
- can solve problems in their heads
- not as much trial-and-error anymore
ex: if you asked kids what would happen if everyone became blind
- kids not ready to be in this stage would say a ridiculous answer
- kids in this stage would say that people who were already blind would succeed more because they’re used to it already
ex: what if we solved world hunger?
Criticisms of Piaget’s Theory
- he didn’t focus on individual differences between kids (only looked at the age group of kids as a whole)
- he thought once you passed the milestone you moved onto the next stage (it’s actually more gradual not abrupt)
- he didn’t explain what is happening in the child’s brain to get them to move from one stage to the next
Theory of the Mind
people understand that others have different points of view (beliefs, desires, intentions)
- this stage happens around 3-4 years old (before the end of preoperational stage)
False Belief Test
theory of the mind test
ex: a kid is shown a box of crayons with candles inside
- snoopy doesn’t see the crayons inside the box
- if child says that snoopy thinks there’s candles in the box, then child fails the test
- if child says that snoopy thinks there’s crayons in the box, then child passes
*children who pass the test understand that other people have different POVs or beliefs, even if they are false
Temperament
differences in mood patterns, activity, and emotional responses
- predicts adult personality
- individual differences in temperament is because of genetics
Kagan Test for Temperament
looked at high and low reactive infants
- if a child reacted loudly to something = highly reactive
- he then studied them as they got older
Blair: low reactive infant – she laughed a lot and engaged in the enviornment without much care
Lisa: high reactive infant – she was shy, didn’t laugh or hold much eye contact
- she became not as shy as she got older because of parenting (environmental influences)
monkeys: switched monkeys to have different parents
- they reacted differently no matter who the mother was (they reacted differently to parenting style)
*how you reacted stayed with you unless you had parenting style that changed this
*genetics and environment influence reactivity
Attachment
the connection an infant has with a caregiver
strange situation test:
- leave kid with mom and then a stranger walks in the room
- mom leaves the room and kid stays with stranger
*looking at how kid reacts when mom leaves and during reunion period
Attachment Styles: Secure Attachment
- Lisa cries when the mom leaves and runs to mom and calms down quickly during reunion period
- baby seeks out mom during reunion stage (interacts with mom)
- baby doesn’t engage with the stranger – isn’t calmed down by them either
Avoidant Attachment
when mom comes back into the room, the baby avoids the mom
- baby interact in the same way with stranger and mom (interest level is the same)
Anxious-Ambivalent
baby is unsure about how they feel – they flip-flop their attitudes towards mom
- baby might resist mom but then later be overly clingy to mom
Disorganized
infants that didn’t fit the 3 categories
Harlow’s Study
took rhesus monkeys and gave them a choice between the wire monkey with a milk bottle and a cloth monkey without milk
*monkeys continued to pick the cloth monkey because they preferred comfort over food
*comfort is more important to attachment than food
*the monkeys were biologically preconditioned to pick the comfort monkey over the food – we know this because they haven’t had exposure to the environment yet so it must be a biological reason for why the baby monkeys pick the comfort monkey over the monkey with food
