theories of development

Question 1

how does development occur

Answer 1

• continuous
• in stages

Question 2

what is continuous development

Answer 2

• continuous development from childhood through adulthood
• children are not qualitatively different from adults, they simply have less knowledge

Question 3

what is development in stages

Answer 3

• development from childhood to adulthood through a succession of stages
• children and adults are qualitatively different in psychological terms

Question 4

what influences development - nature

Answer 4

development is a product of genetic inheritence

Question 5

what influences development - nurture

Answer 5

• development is a product of environment and experience

Question 6

what is behaviourism

Answer 6

• Skinner
• a psychology movement that argues that psychological phenomena can be explained only by observable behaviour and the environment in which it occurs
• denial of nativism - not innate
• the black box - the brain is a black box we manipulate and determine what is going in and what is going out
• development is a product of shaping through successive approximation

Question 7

what is nativism - Noam Chomsky

Answer 7

• genetically determined behaviour
• innate knowledge of language
• deep structure - an innate grammatical structuring of language that is universal among humans and unique to humans as species
• innate faculties and modules
• same mechanisms underline both child and adult behaviour

Question 8

what is evolution and ethology - konrad lorenz

Answer 8

• imprinting - process of attachment a baby animal forms with the first thing they encounter at birth
• critical period for imprinting - 10-30 hours
• biological preparedness - readiness to learn specific skills
• maturational unfolding and stages - genetically determined developmental progression

Question 9

evolution and attachment - Bowlby and Ainsworth

Answer 9

• influenced by Lorenz - attachment is a natural process under maturational control
• disruption to process can have detrimental consequences
• separation distress - 8-9 months
• long term separation may lead to the developmental delays physically intellectually and emotionally

Question 10

constructivism - piaget

Answer 10

• knowledge is actively generated by the individual rather than transmitted by another person through genes
• nature and nurture
• occurs in stages
• children’s thoughts qualitatively different from adults
• development not an evolution but a revolution