Theories of Development

Question 1

What are the 4 theories of development?

Answer 1

1) Piagetian Theory
2) Evolutionary Theories
3) Socio-cultural Theories
4) Information Processing Theories

Question 2

What are two facts about evolutionary models?

Answer 2

1) Evolution may have influenced behaviour as it influenced physical traits, it is geared toward reproduction and survival
2) Certain genes predispose individuals to behave in ways that are more successful toward these genes

Question 3

What are four facts about core-knowledge theories?

Answer 3

1) Addresses what behaviours are due to evolution and what are through experiences
2) Children have innate cognitive capabilities
3) Focus on understanding areas that have been important in our evolutionary history
4) Endorse a modularity approach: believe different parts of brains solve different problems, specialized skills

Question 4

What are the mechanisms of change in Social Learning theories?

Answer 4

Observation and imitation

Question 5

What are 4 facts about social learning theories?

Answer 5

1) Experience is the most important factor in social/personality development
2) Learning theories are continuous: the same mechanisms control learning and behaviour throughout life
3) Children learn through conditioning and reinforcement (behaviourist learning)
4) Children learn through observation and imitation of others (social learning)

Question 6

What did Vygotsky formulate?

Answer 6

Sociocultural theories of cognitive development

Question 7

What are 3 facts about sociocultural theories (of cognitive development)?

Answer 7

1) Cognitive development in interpersonal contact (interaction with play, parents, peers, etc.)
2) Zone of proximal development: range between what children can do unsupported (on their own) and what they can do with optimal social support
3) Social scaffolding: more competent people provide temporary frameworks that lead children to higher-order thinking (used interchangeably with ‘guided participation’)

Question 8

What are three ways that cognitive change occurs?

Answer 8

Joint attention: intentional focus on a common referent (child and teacher share a focus)
Intersubjectivity: mutual understanding established during communication- a ‘meeting of the minds’ (child understands what is being taught)
Social referencing: children look to social partners for guidance about how to respond to unfamiliar events (children learn from others to decide how to react to events)

Question 9

What are the 5 types of sociocultural constraints?

Answer 9

1) Physical: home, neighbourhood, etc.
2) Social: parents, peers, etc.
3) Economic: national wealth, family wealth, etc.
4) Cultural: language, values, politics, etc.
5) Historical: influences all these other factors

Question 10

What is Bronfenbrenner’s theory?

Answer 10

The Bioecological Model: a child’s environment is composed of multiple layers, extending from the child at the center, outward to the entire society

Question 11

What are the 5 layers of the Biological Model?

Answer 11

Microsystem: environment where child is directly in (home, school, etc.)
Mesosystem: how their microsystems interact with one another (e.g. parent and teacher both trying to teach child math)
Exosystem: outer forces which affect microsystem (extended family, neighbours, etc.)
Macrosystem: laws or restrictions that might have effect on how child will develop (e.g. laws of how education gets funded)
Chronosystem: more of a historical effect (what opportunities are available to children)

Question 12

What are three facts about information processing theories?

Answer 12

1) Information-processing theorists view children as undergoing continuous cognitive change
2) Important changes are viewed as constantly occurring, rather than being restricted to special transition periods between stages
3) View children as active problem solvers; with development, children’s cognitive flexibility helps them pursue their goals

Question 13

What are three ways that cognitive development grows?

Answer 13

1) Increasing efficient execution of basic processes
2) Expanding memory capacity
3) Acquisition of new strategies and knowledge

Question 14

What are basic processes?

Answer 14

The simplest and most frequently used mental activities, improve as one gets older

Question 15

What are 5 basic processes?

Answer 15

1) Associating events with one another (child needs to be reprimanded right after bad action, teenager can be reprimanded the next day and still make connection)
2) recognizing objects as familiar
3) recalling facts and procedures (draw on past knowledge)
4) generalizing from one instance to another (tell child not to hit Timothy, so he hits Jacob instead)
5) encoding: the process of making learning into stored memory

Question 16

1) What is processing speed?
2) What are two biological processes that contribute to faster processing?

Answer 16

1) The speed which children can execute basic processes increases greatly over the course of childhood
2) Myelination and Increased connectivity

Question 17

What are the three types of memory?

Answer 17

Sensory memory, working memory, long-term memory

Question 18

What are three facts about sensory memory?

Answer 18

1) sights, sounds, and other sensations entering brain
2) can hold a moderate amount of info for a fraction of a second.
3) its capacity is relatively constant over development

Question 19

What are three facts about working memory?

Answer 19

1) A workspace in which information from the environment and relevant knowledge are brought together, attended to, and actively processed
2) Is quite limited in both capacity and duration.
3) Capacity and speed increases greatly over development

Question 20

What are three facts about long-term memory?

Answer 20

1) Refers to information retained on an enduring basis
2) Can retain an unlimited amount of information indefinitely
3) Contents of long-term memory increase enormously over development

Question 21

1) When do mental strategies emerge?
2) What are two mental strategies?

Answer 21

1) Many emerge between ages 5-8
2) Rehearsal: the process of repeating information over and over to aid memory
Selective attention: the process of intentionally focusing on information that is most relevant to the current goal