Unit 6: Development in Middle Childhood (7-11 years)

Question 1

Between which ages do children grow at a steady rate and what does that mean? (before growth spurt)

Answer 1

7-11
5-8 cm, 2.5-3 kg per year

Question 2

How does growth increase during the growth spurt?

Answer 2

5-10 cm
4.5-7 kg

Question 3

Are younger children (2-3 y/o) in control of their attention?

Answer 3

no, their attention gets easily captured by distractors

Question 4

Why might the ability to sustain attention improve gradually throughout childhood and early adolescence?

Answer 4

maturational changes of CNS

Question 5

What is the brain structure necessary for sustaining attention and when is it fully myelinated?

Answer 5

reticular formation
puberty

Question 6

Miller and Weiss conducted studies on the ability of children to resist distraction from task-irrelevant information. The found evidence that this ability improves, but during which ages?

Answer 6

7-13 years

Question 7

How was the study by Miller and Weiss (ability to resist distractions) structured?

Answer 7

7, 10 and 13 year old’s had to remember locations of toy animals hidden behind a screen
when each screen was lifted to reveal the location of the animal, household objects were above or below each screen

Question 8

What were the results for children of each age for the Miller & Weiss study (ability to resist distractions)?

Answer 8

7& 10 y/os: less accurate in remembering animals, more accurate in remembering household items (even if that wasn’t the goal of the task)
13 y/o: more accurate in remembering animals, less able to recall household items
-> better at ignoring task-irrelevant information

Question 9

Miller & Weiss also showed meta-cognition. What is that and how did it show during the study?

Answer 9

knowledge somebody has regarding their own cog. processes
they understand what they have to do (were asked how to do the task), but were unable to do so

Question 10

Meta-attention

Answer 10

4 y/o children understand that it is harder to pay attention to two people telling stories at a time than hearing one at a time

Question 11

Meta-memory

Answer 11

4y/o: understand that some things are easier to remember than others
3-5 y/o: remembering many items is more difficult than remembering a few

Question 12

Which belief of children between the ages of 3-5 suggests, that they view memory storage as a “mental copy” that won’t be lost over time?

Answer 12

belief that remembering sth over short period of time is as easy as over a long period

Question 13

Towards which age do children form the (more accurate) understanding, that the mind holds interpretations of reality?

Answer 13

11

Question 14

What’s one strategy to promote memory storage and retrieval?

Answer 14

mnemonics

Question 15

What are two common types of mnemonics?

Answer 15

rehearsal
organisation

Question 16

rehearsal

Answer 16

repeating sth until you remember it

Question 17

Does the ability to implement rehearsal stay static?

Answer 17

no, it improves with age
-> 3-4: try to remember objects by looking carefully and labelling, without rehearsing
-> 7-10: can rehearse, the more they do so, the more they remember

Question 18

Does rehearsal change with development?

Answer 18

yes

Question 19

How does rehearsal change with development? (quantity)

Answer 19

5-8 y/o tend to rehearse one word at a time
12 y/o more likely to use active, cumulative rehearsal (multiple words in chunks)

Question 20

Why are younger children speculated to be unable of using cumulative rehearsal?

Answer 20

limited working memory capacity doesn’t allow holding enough information to form clusters

Question 21

What is organization and when do children begin using it?

Answer 21

grouping or classifying stimuli into meaningful clusters
-> easier to retain
9-10 years

Question 22

Which are the 4 stages of development, which ages does each stage include and how do people progress from one stage to the next?

Answer 22

0-2: Sensorimotor intelligence
2-7: Preoperational thought
7-11: concrete operational
11-adulthood: formal operational
-> successful completion of previous stage necessary to advance

Question 23

What do children accomplish during the pre-operational stage?

Answer 23

think in symbols

Question 24

What do children accomplish in the concrete-operational stage

Answer 24

use of logic to solve concrete, current problems

Question 25

What do children accomplish in the formal-operational stage?

Answer 25

solving abstract problems

Question 26

What is mental seriation and which stage does it occur in?

Answer 26

putting objects in serial order
occurs in concrete operational stage

Question 27

Which are the two types of errors children in the preoperational stage tend to make when attempting mental seriation?

Answer 27

incomplete ordering (successfully ordering most, but not all)
extension (ordering them so the tops of each stick extends higher than previous one

Question 28

Transivity

Answer 28

understanding logical relations between series of objects

Question 29

classification

Answer 29

logical assumptions on objects based on membership to a particular category

Question 30

reversibility

Answer 30

ability to mentally reverse an action

Question 31

What’s an example of reversibility? (maths)

Answer 31

understanding that numbers can be changed (addition) and returned to original state (subtraction)

Question 32

Where are great improvements visible in children, when looking at language? When do these changes occur?

Answer 32

pragmatic system: appropriate and effective use of language in social situations
-> children become more sensitive to needs of others
-> understand humor, irony, etc.
6-11

Question 33

Children below the age of 6 tell stories, assuming the other person has the same knowledge available as them. What is this called/ related to?

Answer 33

egocentrism: failing to understand that others have different perspectives
-> immature theory of mind

Question 34

Resolving misunderstandings is also part of the pragmatic system. Is this skill also developed between 6-11?

Answer 34

no, it begins to develop before 3 years of age

Question 35

What was the conclusion of Sauter et al. study concerning children between 5-10 years, and their ability to understand nonverbal and verbal vocalisations?

Answer 35

emotional content of words (irrespective of meaning) continues to develop throughout school years

Question 36

Where does learning to detect humor have its roots?

Answer 36

infant-directed speech

Question 37

Since humor is linked to child-directed speech, are deaf children effected negatively by not having this opportunity?

Answer 37

yes, they’re less sensitive to detecting humor due to fewer opportunities to learn subtleties of pragmatics in language

Question 38

How do adults mostly answer the question “Who am I?”?

Answer 38

abilities, interests or characteristics, making us feel proud, ashamed, similar or different to others

Question 39

What is self-concept and how does it develop?

Answer 39

consists of characteristics (physical,mental,emotional, etc.) we use to describe ourselves
develops by degrees (gradual and cumulative way)

Question 40

What does the concept of ourselves and others help us with?

Answer 40

grouping people with common features
developing feelings towards groups

Question 41

social identity

Answer 41

sense of identity derived from membership of social groups
feelings of belonging
expected behaviors, thoughts and attitudes

Question 42

Is our self-concept static?

Answer 42

no, it’s under constant review and change

Question 43

How do children of different ages describe their self-concept?

Answer 43

3-5: physical/ external characteristics (likely due to language ability)
> 5: internal characteristics (feelings,etc.)
8: start using traits
14-16: use traits
16-18: make more references to self control

Question 44

What is the developmental precursor of self-concept?

Answer 44

self-awareness

Question 45

What is self-awareness?

Answer 45

ability to recognize ourselves as distinct from others with physical and mental properties

Question 46

How does the rouge test work and how is it related to self-awareness?

Answer 46

red dot applied on child’s forehead
children < 15-18 months: amused at image, didn’t recognize themselves
children > 15-18 months: reached for own nose, suggesting self-awareness

Question 47

Bullock and Lutkenhaus performed another test designed to measure self-awareness, using photographs of children. What were the results?

Answer 47

Only children between 18-24 months described photographs (of themselves) using words like I and me

Question 48

Lews mentioned, that self awareness reflects in the subjective self. What is that?

Answer 48

awareness of:
- agency (how our actions affect objects and others)
- our experiences are unique
- identity has continuity
- self- reflexivity (ability to reflect on ourselves)

Question 49

When does the subjective self begin to develop?

Answer 49

first months of life
-> rudimentary understanding of responsibility for some events entertaining them

Question 50

When does the objective self develop, and what is it?

Answer 50

at around 2 years
recognizing the self in terms of characteristics used to describe groups of people (size, gender, etc.)

Question 51

What is the looking-glass self?

Answer 51

we see ourselves reflected in other people’s behavior
-> children adopt opinions others have of them through repeated social interaction

Question 52

What does self-esteem consist of?

Answer 52

self-evaluations and evaluations others made of us

Question 53

Self-esteem follows a developmental trajectory. How do the evaluations change?

Answer 53

younger children: global evaluations (i am happy)
become more specific and differentiated toward late childhood
-> separate evaluations of different aspects (conduct, appearance, etc.)

Question 54

Harter suggests that self-esteem is the result of a discrepancy between two internal assessments of ourselves. Which are they?

Answer 54

ideal self (what we’d like to be)
real self (what we are)

Question 55

little vs. high discrepancy between ideal and real self

Answer 55

little: self-esteem tends to be high
high discrepancy: child doesn’t live up to standards

Question 56

When does an increasingly consistent self-esteem develop?

Answer 56

8-10

Question 57

Are our expectations and the degree of efficacy in different domains of life also relevant for self esteem?

Answer 57

yes

Question 58

Which beliefs also determine a child’s self concept?

Answer 58

causes of successes and failure

Question 59

Which are the causes Weiner suggested we tend to attribute success and failure to?

Answer 59

ability and task difficulty (stable)
effort and luck (unstable)

Question 60

Which attribution of success and failure did Weiner suggest to be healthy?

Answer 60

success due to ability
failure due to effort

Question 61

internal vs. external causes

Answer 61

internal: ability & effort
external: task difficulty & luck

Question 62

locus of causality

Answer 62

is outcome caused by the child or not
-> conditions value of an outcome (internal locus = high value)

Question 63

During which ages are children unrealistic optimists and why?

Answer 63

before 7
teacher and parents value effort over quality of work
-> children can succeed at anything

Question 64

When does the distinction between ability and effort develop and why? Why can this be problematic?

Answer 64

8-12
teachers place more value on quality than effort
-> failure may be attributed to lack of ability

Question 65

How do children learn social skills like emotional regulation and compromise?

Answer 65

interactions in peer groups

Question 66

When do children already have a strong belonging to a group?

Answer 66

end of first school year (5-6)

Question 67

How do boys and girls differ in the development of peer groups?

Answer 67

boys: activities in larger groups
girls: activities in smaller cliques

Question 68

social status

Answer 68

extent to which a child is liked/ disliked or accepted/ rejected by peers

Question 69

Are peer group acceptance and friendship the same?

Answer 69

no, popularity only concerns group’s perception of a child, not reciprocal relationships

Question 70

Why is being accepted by peer groups important?

Answer 70

rejection can cause emotional distress
exclusion from participation limits development of social skills

Question 71

How is social status typically studied?

Answer 71

1. members of peer groups nominate each other from most to least liked (most accepted -> most rejected -> neglected)
2. members of peer groups asked to rate extent to which they like/ dislike others (e.g. Likert scale)
3. naturalistic observation ( children directly observed to see which children interact with each other and how often; popular -> rejected -> neglected)

Question 72

How does attraction influence peer group acceptance?

Answer 72

more physically attractive and larger children tend to be more accepted

Question 73

Which are some other examples (apart from attraction) that influence peer group acceptance?

Answer 73

academic competence
social skills
cooperative and supportive disposition
etc.

Question 74

Which characteristics usually lead to peer group rejection?

Answer 74

aggressive, disruptive and uncooperative behavior: lack of social skills for compromise
timid, withdrawn behavior: avoid approaching peer groups

Question 75

How do withdrawn and aggressive children differ in their beliefs of rejection?

Answer 75

withdrawn children know they’re disliked
aggressive children may think theyre liked

Question 76

How do peer neglected children behave and why?

Answer 76

play by themselves or at fringes of larger groups
function of personality: prefer to be by themselves
-> neither liked nor disliked

Question 77

What are family education styles characterized by?

Answer 77

level of affection and communication
degree of control and demands on children

Question 78

What are the family education styles? (further explanation of page 59 of Unit 6)

Answer 78

Democratic
Permissive
Authoritarian
indifferent

Question 79

Kohlberg’s model

Answer 79

Two components interacting in moral behavior:
- Social perspective: seeing things from own POV and others
- Moral content: influenced by child’s experiences in moral sitations

Question 80

What are the stages of Kohlberg’s model? (lowest to highest)

Answer 80

Avoiding Punishment
Self-interest
good boy attitude
law and order morality
social contract
principle

Question 81

What are the three moral levels and which stages of Kohlberg’s model do they include?

Answer 81

Preconventional (3-7): losest two
Conventional (8-13): middle two
Post-conventional (adulthood): highest two