Theories of Development

Question 1

What is developmental psychology?

Answer 1

Explaining nature and processes involved in human development from infancy to adulthood

Question 2

What is continuous development?

Answer 2

Children = mini adults as they are same mentally with the same underlying mechanisms

Children not qualitatively different from adults, just have less knowledge

Question 3

What is in stages development?

Answer 3

Development from childhood to adulthood through succession of stages

Children and adults are qualitatively different in psychological terms

Stages require transformation

Question 4

What does the nature side of the debate believe?

Answer 4

Development is product of genetic inheritance

Question 5

What does the nurture side of the debate believe?

Answer 5

Development is a product of environment and experience

Question 6

Who is the main psychologist in behaviourism?

Answer 6

BF Skinner

Question 7

What does behaviourism believe?

Answer 7

Psychological phenomena explained by only focusing on behaviour and environment where is occurs

Same principles apply to babies as adults and animals

Question 8

What are the key features of behaviourism?

Answer 8

Radical empiricism

“Black box”

Denial of nativism

Irrelevance of cognitive processes

Successive approximations

Value of comparative psychology

Question 9

What is radical empiricism?

Answer 9

Only concerned with what we directly observe with our senses

Question 10

What does “black box” mean?

Answer 10

Brain like black box

Can manipulate, determine and test what’s going in and coming out but not what’s going inside

Question 11

How does behaviourism believe behaviour is shaped?

Answer 11

Through reinforcement (positive and negative)

Question 12

What are successive approximations?

Answer 12

Keep reinforcing to complete behaviour

Question 13

What does behaviourism believe development is a product of?

Answer 13

Shaping through successive approximation

Stepwise process to get final outcome

Heavily reliant on process of reinforcement

Question 14

Is behaviourism on the nature or nurture side of the debate?

Answer 14

Nurture

Question 15

Does behaviourism believe development is continuous or in stages?

Answer 15

Continuous

Question 16

Who is the main psychologist in nativism?

Answer 16

Noam Chomsky

Question 17

What does nativism believe?

Answer 17

Genetically determined behaviour

Same mechanisms underlie both child and adult behaviour

Question 18

What are the key features of nativism?

Answer 18

Innate knowledge of language

Innate faculties and modules

Question 19

What does an innate knowledge of language mean?

Answer 19

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

Question 20

Is nativism on the nature or nurture side of the debate?

Answer 20

Nature

Question 21

Does nativism believe development is continuous or in stages?

Answer 21

Continuous

Question 22

Who is the main psychologist in the evolution and ethology theory?

Answer 22

Konrad Lorenz

Question 23

What are the key features of the evolution and ethology theory?

Answer 23

Imprinting

Biological preparedness

Maturational unfolding and stages

Question 24

What is imprinting?

Answer 24

Process of attachment a baby forms with first thing they encounter at birth

Critical period = 10-30 hours

Question 25

What is biological preparedness?

Answer 25

A genetically determined readiness to learn specific skills (walking)

Question 26

What is maturational unfolding and stages?

Answer 26

A genetically determined developmental progression Logical, step by step progression involing transformation

Question 27

Who are the main psychologists in the evolution and attachment theory?

Answer 27

Bowlby Ainsworth

Question 28

What does the evolution and attachment theory?

Answer 28

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

Question 29

Who is the main psychologist in constructivism?

Answer 29

Piaget

Question 30

What does constructivism believe?

Answer 30

Knowledge actively generated by individual rather than transmitted by another person through one's genes

Question 31

Is constructivism on the nature or nurture side of the debate?

Answer 31

Nature AND nurture

Question 32

Does constructivism believe development is continuous or in stages?

Answer 32

In stages

Question 33

What are the key features of constructivism?

Answer 33

Development not evolution but revolution - need to shed previous cognitive limitations for progression Egocentrism

Question 34

What is egocentrism?

Answer 34

Difficulty taking on board another person's perspective Need to adjust to human (social, psychologist) and physical environments to survive but egocentrism prevents this

Question 35

What are the four stages of development in constructivism?

Answer 35

Sensorimotor Preoperational Concrete operational Formal operational

Question 36

When is the sensorimotor stage?

Answer 36

0-2 years Infancy

Question 37

What happens in the sensorimotor stage?

Answer 37

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

Question 38

What is mental imagery?

Answer 38

Ability to imagine the existence of things even when they are not directly accessible to senses

Question 39

What is solipsism?

Answer 39

Failure to distinguish between self and the rest of the universe

Question 40

What is object permanence?

Answer 40

Understanding that things continue to exist even when we can't sense them directly

Question 41

When is the preoperational stage?

Answer 41

2-7 years Early childhood

Question 42

What happens in the preoperational stage?

Answer 42

Mental imagery without principled thought Able to imagine things Emergence of pretend play

Question 43

When is the concrete operational stage?

Answer 43

7-12 years Middle childhood

Question 44

What happens in the concrete operational stage?

Answer 44

Principled thought confined to real-life problems

Question 45

When is the formal operational stage?

Answer 45

12 years onwards Adolescence and adulthood

Question 46

What happens in the formal operational stage?

Answer 46

Principled thought applied to abstract problems

Question 47

What theories are related to the language aspect of development?

Answer 47

Behaviourism vs nativism

Question 48

What theories are related to the intellect aspect of development?

Answer 48

Constructivism and stages

Question 49

What theories are related to the emotional development/attachment aspect of development?

Answer 49

Maturation, evolution and ethology