Social Psychology

Question 1

Who discovered autism?

Answer 1

Asperger and Kanner

Question 2

What are the problems associated with autism?

Answer 2

Social interaction is difficult
Activities and interests are obsessive
Communication is difficult

Question 3

Do autistic people have theory of mind?

Answer 3

They fail the false belief test

Question 4

Who fails the false belief test?

Answer 4

Children under 4
Chimpanzees
Autistic people

Question 5

Who came up with the false belief test?

Answer 5

Wimmer and Perner

Question 6

What is theory of mind?

Answer 6

The ability to understand that observed behaviour is caused by unobserved mental states and that others can have divergent views of the world

Question 7

What type of change does Perner believe developing T.O.M is?

Answer 7

A conceptual change. Children develop a theory of mind (“Theory theory”)

Question 8

What type of change does Leslie think developing theory of mind is?

Answer 8

Modular - theory of mind is innate, it is the capacity and ability to use it which changes

Question 9

What did Bowlby believe about attachment?

Answer 9

That it was an innate predisposition for evolutionary advantage

Question 10

What would a behaviourist believe about attachment?

Answer 10

That it is developed from rewards from close contact

Question 11

What did Harry Harlow contribute to the attachment debate?

Answer 11

He showed that rhesus baby monkeys prefer to be with a cloth mother with no food than a metal mother with food

Question 12

What did Ainsworth contribute to attachment theory?

Answer 12

The different types of individual attachment.

Secure = moderate
Insecure Ambivalent = clingy and excessive but sometimes pushes mother away too
Insecure Avoidant = shows no love of mother or need for parent, doesn’t want help with tasks

Through stranger experiment

Question 13

How would Piaget do education?

Answer 13

Learning by exploration
Learner-centred orientation
Thematic rather than subject specific organisation
Focus on development of schémas

Question 14

How would Vygotsky do education?

Answer 14

Focus on sociocultural learning
Adults would play an important role
Internalisation and inner speech
Zone of proximal development and scaffolding

Question 15

Does Vygotsky think speech precedes language or the other way round?

Answer 15

He would say they are separate systems that intertwine

Question 16

What did Chomsky believe about language?

Answer 16

He believed in universal innate grammar
Hierarchical structures
Underlying abstract rules of syntax 
Domain specific
Critical period for learning syntax (Genie)

Question 17

What evidence is there to support Chomsky’s language acquisition device theory?

Answer 17

Deaf children with parents who don’t learn sign language invent their own language

Williams syndrome - impaired intelligence but sustained intact language skills

Question 18

What did Skinner believe about language?

Answer 18

Stimulus response behaviour
Learnt by imitation and reinforcement
Chains of verbal responses

Question 19

Outline the cognitive hypothesis for language acquisition

Answer 19

No syntax, just semantics (semantics are much later)

Children map early utterances onto sensorimotor notions e.g. Object

Question 20

What evidence is there against language acquisition through imitation?

Answer 20

Children say grammatically incorrect things they can’t possibly have heard

Children find it hard to imitate utterances they can’t spontaneously produce

Question 21

What evidence is there against Chomsky’s LAD?

Answer 21

Correcting children’s grammar has little effect

Children find it hard to imitate utterances they can’t spontaneously practice

Children make grammatical errors they can’t possibly have heard

Question 22

Do newborns like looking at faces?

Answer 22

Johnson and fantz: yes

But maybe just top heavy patterns

Question 23

Do other species have theory of mind?

Answer 23

Some monkeys prefer to steal food from those they know aren’t looking

But poinelli and eddy show that chimpanzees don’t differentiate between humans that can see them and humans that can’t when asking for food