Social Cognitive Development Flashcards
What is social understanding?
When a child can understand the perspective of somebody else. Theory of mind - need to be able to understand that a belief that you have or someone else has can be wrong (moving away from egocentrism).
What is a false belief task?
Premack & Woodruff - need the understanding that Sally is going to look for something where she placed it before, but have to understand that this could be false.
What are theories on the development of social understanding?
- Perspective taking
- Theory of mind (develop around 4 years)
- Emotional understanding - may be a false belief understanding but this is developed by being able to make inferences on how that belief will affect the individual.
- Advanced theory of mine (5-11 years): understanding faux par task. Other measures can also be used to test this e.g. double blood. Second order false belief = understanding others intentions. Requires child to understand there are different interpretations that can be held for exactly the same situation.
What is a faux par task?
Links to moral development - understanding what is expected of you in certain situations is important for you to make decisions on how to behave and take responsibility for your actions.
What are theories of cognitive development?
- The ‘theory theory’: depicts children as social scientists. Child takes their theory of what they expect from a social situation, compares it to reality to see if it was accurate. Mental representation - contrast representation of reality with belief. However doesn’t explain how children get from one theory to another.
- Theory of mind mechanics: neurological explanation. Argues there are innate mechanisms that prime us to start dealing with exploring the social world.
- Simulation theory: children have fantastic imaginations, and are able to imagine themselves in the perspective of another.
What is social information processing?
Crick & Dodge - model depicts social cognitive development over life course. Does this by seeing development as occurring over a cycle. Model has a data base in the middle = previous social experience will contribute to the cycle. Steps of the cycle:
- Encoding of cues
- Interpretation of cues
- Clarification of goals
- Response access or construction
- Response decision
- Behavioural enactment
What is social cognitive neuroscience?
There are neutrons in the brain that are active when you watch somebody else doing something - consequence is your brain goes through the same physiological processes as when you are doing something yourself as when you observe someone else. Act as building blocks for developing cognitive understanding. Criticisms: most research is invasive and done with macaque monkeys (don’t have same cognitive understanding as humans).
What is involved in social understanding and peer relations?
Social understanding tasks associated with connected communication between friends at age 3-4 (Slomkowski & Dunn, 1996)
Caputi et al (2012): Theory of mind at each 5 leads to more cooperative behaviour at age 6 which leads to more peer acceptance and less peer rejection at age 7.
Banerjee, Watling & Caputi found that peer rejection inhibits social understanding, impaired social understanding predicts subsequent rejection.
What is autism spectrum disorder?
People with autism (1 in 68 children) have difficulties with aspects of social understanding. Manifests itself differently along pathways of development. For some can start at 12 months e.g. rejecting comfort from their mother, but other children only presents itself at ages 3/4. Strong genetic link (4x as likely in males).
What are explanations of autism?
- Top-down: deficits in innate modules - small differences in biological characteristics might dictate future social interactions.
- Bottom-up: differences in identification with others. Different developmental pathways due to differences in visual systems. Inconsistencies in social experience.
