Theories of Development Flashcards
What is developmental psychology?
Explaining nature and processes involved in human development from infancy to adulthood
What is continuous development?
Children = mini adults as they are same mentally with the same underlying mechanisms
Children not qualitatively different from adults, just have less knowledge
What is in stages development?
Development from childhood to adulthood through succession of stages
Children and adults are qualitatively different in psychological terms
Stages require transformation
What does the nature side of the debate believe?
Development is product of genetic inheritance
What does the nurture side of the debate believe?
Development is a product of environment and experience
Who is the main psychologist in behaviourism?
BF Skinner
What does behaviourism believe?
Psychological phenomena explained by only focusing on behaviour and environment where is occurs
Same principles apply to babies as adults and animals
What are the key features of behaviourism?
Radical empiricism
“Black box”
Denial of nativism
Irrelevance of cognitive processes
Successive approximations
Value of comparative psychology
What is radical empiricism?
Only concerned with what we directly observe with our senses
What does “black box” mean?
Brain like black box
Can manipulate, determine and test what’s going in and coming out but not what’s going inside
How does behaviourism believe behaviour is shaped?
Through reinforcement (positive and negative)
What are successive approximations?
Keep reinforcing to complete behaviour
What does behaviourism believe development is a product of?
Shaping through successive approximation
Stepwise process to get final outcome
Heavily reliant on process of reinforcement
Is behaviourism on the nature or nurture side of the debate?
Nurture
Does behaviourism believe development is continuous or in stages?
Continuous
Who is the main psychologist in nativism?
Noam Chomsky
What does nativism believe?
Genetically determined behaviour
Same mechanisms underlie both child and adult behaviour
What are the key features of nativism?
Innate knowledge of language
Innate faculties and modules
What does an innate knowledge of language mean?
Deep structure = innate grammatical structuring of language that is universal among humans and unique to humans as species
We translate to and from deep structure
Is nativism on the nature or nurture side of the debate?
Nature
Does nativism believe development is continuous or in stages?
Continuous
Who is the main psychologist in the evolution and ethology theory?
Konrad Lorenz
What are the key features of the evolution and ethology theory?
Imprinting
Biological preparedness
Maturational unfolding and stages
What is imprinting?
Process of attachment a baby forms with first thing they encounter at birth
Critical period = 10-30 hours
What is biological preparedness?
A genetically determined readiness to learn specific skills (walking)
What is maturational unfolding and stages?
A genetically determined developmental progression
Logical, step by step progression involing transformation
Who are the main psychologists in the evolution and attachment theory?
Bowlby
Ainsworth
What does the evolution and attachment theory?
Attachment is natural process under maturational control
Disruption of process can have detrimental consequences
Separation distress (from 8-9 months of age) is evidence of attachment
Long-term separation may lead to developmental delays physically, intellectually and emotionally
Who is the main psychologist in constructivism?
Piaget
What does constructivism believe?
Knowledge actively generated by individual rather than transmitted by another person through one’s genes
Is constructivism on the nature or nurture side of the debate?
Nature AND nurture
Does constructivism believe development is continuous or in stages?
In stages
What are the key features of constructivism?
Development not evolution but revolution - need to shed previous cognitive limitations for progression
Egocentrism
What is egocentrism?
Difficulty taking on board another person’s perspective
Need to adjust to human (social, psychologist) and physical environments to survive but egocentrism prevents this
What are the four stages of development in constructivism?
Sensorimotor
Preoperational
Concrete operational
Formal operational
When is the sensorimotor stage?
0-2 years
Infancy
What happens in the sensorimotor stage?
Failure to differentiate between self and surroundings
Only perceives world through own actions
Lack of mental imagery
Solipsism
Don’t have object permanence
Perception subordinate to action
What is mental imagery?
Ability to imagine the existence of things even when they are not directly accessible to senses
What is solipsism?
Failure to distinguish between self and the rest of the universe
What is object permanence?
Understanding that things continue to exist even when we can’t sense them directly
When is the preoperational stage?
2-7 years
Early childhood
What happens in the preoperational stage?
Mental imagery without principled thought
Able to imagine things
Emergence of pretend play
When is the concrete operational stage?
7-12 years
Middle childhood
What happens in the concrete operational stage?
Principled thought confined to real-life problems
When is the formal operational stage?
12 years onwards
Adolescence and adulthood
What happens in the formal operational stage?
Principled thought applied to abstract problems
What theories are related to the language aspect of development?
Behaviourism vs nativism
What theories are related to the intellect aspect of development?
Constructivism and stages
What theories are related to the emotional development/attachment aspect of development?
Maturation, evolution and ethology
