theories of development

Question 1

who are the two main theorist in developmental psychology?

Answer 1

Piaget, Vgotsky

Question 2

Piaget: what are the main features of his theories of development? (2)

Answer 2

• constructionist - children as ‘little scientists’ who are motivated to learn
• stage theories - universal and invariant sequence full of continuities and discontinuities

Question 3

Piaget: what are the ‘continuities’ and ‘discontinuties’ of Piaget’s developmental theory?

Answer 3

continuities - assimilation (learning) vs accommodation (adapting what you’ve already learnt’ - balance an equilibrium of the two to create a stable understanding of the world
discontinuities - the changing stages through development

Question 4

Piaget: what are the 4 stages of Piaget’s developmental theory?

Answer 4

sensorimotor stage, pre-operational stage, concrete operational stage, formal operational stage

Question 5

Piaget: what are the key features of the sensorimotor stage? (4)

Answer 5

• birth-2yrs - STAGE 1
• senses and object permanence develop around 8 months
• A not B error until 12 months of age
• deferred imitation begins = enduring mental representations of the world are developing

Question 6

Piaget: what is deferred imitation?

Answer 6

deferred imitation - repeating behaviour substantial time after it’s happened

Question 7

Piaget: what are the key features of the pre-operational stage? (4)

Answer 7

• 2-7yrs - STAGE 2
• acquisition of symbolic representation - seen a lot in play
• egocentric view of the world
• conservation errors due to centration prevalent- S

Question 8

Piaget: what are conservation errors?

Answer 8

conservation errors - believing that changing the appearance of an object changes their quantity - seen in the water jugs task

Question 9

Piaget: what is centration?

Answer 9

centration - focus on a singular aspect causing the child to ignore other stimuli aspect/dimensions

Question 10

Piaget: what are the key features of the concrete operational stage? (2)

Answer 10

• STAGE 3
• logic begins to form but systematic thinking is still limited (as demonstrated by Piaget’s pendulum paradigm)

Question 11

Piaget: what are the key features of the formal operational stage? (3)

Answer 11

• STAGE 4
• abstract thinking, systematic thinking develop
• this stage not universal - depends on education and background

Question 12

Piaget: state three limitations of Piaget’s developmental theory?

Answer 12

• Infants and young children are more cognitively competent than Piaget recognised – i.e research flawed, leading question may lead to child for saying that the juice have the same amount/not the same amount
• Piaget’s theory understates the contribution of the social world to cognitive development (what about the role of other people in the child’s development?)
• Piaget’s theory is vague about the cognitive processes that give rise to children’s thinking and about the mechanisms that produce cognitive growth (what are the processes that lead children to think in a particular way? Piaget doesn’t really elaborate…)

Question 13

Vgotsky: what are the main features of Vgotsky’s theories of development? (4)

Answer 13

• developed as an extension/challenge to Piaget’s theory which overlooked the influence of social environment
• focus on the importance of sociocultural learning
• learning is a product of both higher and lower mental functions
• the importance of inter subjectivity in learning

Question 14

Vgotsky: what are the main 4 tools used in a child’s understanding of their cultural environment?

Answer 14

sociocultural learning, guided participation, cultural tools (higher/lower mental functioning), cultural learning

Question 15

Vgotsky: what is sociocultural learning?

Answer 15

sociocultural learning - contribution of other people surrounding culture to children’s development

Question 16

Vgotsky: what is guided particiapation?

Answer 16

guided participation - process when more the more knowledgeable organise activities for less knowledgeable to engage with/negotiate

Question 17

Vgotsky: how do ‘cultural tools’ help a child understand their environment?

Answer 17

cultural tools (like language) enhance a child’s understanding by engaging with a child’s lower and higher mental functions leading to the child internalising what they’ve learnt

Question 18

Vygotsky: what are ‘low/high mental functions’?

Answer 18

lower mental functions - biological processes and involve simple perception e.g memory and responding to an environment
higher mental functions - consciously controlled processes that are developed through cultural mediation e.g voluntary attention and logical planning. We also navigate these processes through private/egocentric speech

Question 19

Vgotsky: how does higher mental functioning processes lead to internalisation/learning?

Answer 19

Higher mental functions develop through cultural mediation: the transmission of knowledge through social interactions
with other people  interactions allows learning of cultural tools of their environment - when a child understand a cultural tool, they use it independently – internalisation

Question 20

Vgotsky: how do children learn to regulate their behaviour according to Vgotsky?

Answer 20

• at first - parents’ instruction
• then it becomes controlled bu their own private internalised speech - becomes silent with age but still prevalent later on i.e when learning to read quietly

Question 21

Vgotsky: when is private speech the most prevalent in development?

Answer 21

4-6 yrs - esp during complex tasks

Question 22

Vgotsky: reserach demonstrating that behaviour is a product of culture

Answer 22

• (Chen et al., 2004)
• American and Chinese students were given two problems to solve (Chen et al., 2004)
  – Problem 1 could be solved by making an analogy to the Hansel and Gretel fairytale: American students far outperformed Chinese students
  – Problem 2 could be solved by making an analogy to a Chinese fairytale: Chinese students far outperformed American students

Question 23

Vgotsky: what are the 3 processes involved in cultural learning?

Answer 23

intersubjectivity, zone of proximal development, social scaffolding

Question 24

Vgotsky: what is intersubjectivity? what are the 2 processes involved with this?

Answer 24

INTERSUBJECTIVITY – understanding from communication and foundations of cognitive development

– joint attention is the heart of intersubjectivity and is key for learning from others = the younger
infants begin to show joint attention, the faster their subsequent language development (Carpenter et al., 1998)
Social referencing the tendency to look to social partners for guidance about how to respond In unfamiliar circumstances

Question 25

Vgotsky: what is zone of proximal development?

Answer 25

ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT - range of performance between what children can do unsupported and what they can do with optimal support

Question 26

Vgotsky: what is social scaffolding? state an example

Answer 26

SOCIAL SCAFFOLDING – the temporary framework that children’s role models give – they are gradually removed over time as the child begins to develop own understanding – guided participation is an example of social scaffolding