Week 7

Question 1

Developmental Psychology

Answer 1

field of study
that explores patterns of stability, continuity,
growth and change that occur throughout a
person’s life

Question 2

Domains of development

Answer 2

Physical, cognitive, psychosocial

Question 3

Cognitive Development:

Piaget’s cognitive theory

Answer 3

• Children actively construct new understandings
of the world based on their experiences

• Cognitive stage theory
– Sensorimotor
– Preoperational
– Concrete operational
– Formal operational

Question 4

Piaget’s concepts

Answer 4

• Direct learning (schemes)
– Assimilation
• New information fits into existing schemes
– Accommodation
• Changing schemes to incorporate new information or
ideas
– Adaptation

Question 5

Sensorimotor Stage

Answer 5

– The world is understood through the senses and
actions
– The dominant cognitive structures are the
behavioral schemes that develop through
coordination of sensory information and motor
responses

Question 6

Preoperational

Stage

Answer 6

• Symbolic representations and capacity:
– Language
– Pretend play
   • Can include imaginary           companions
– Can refer to the past and future

• Object permanence

Question 7

Pre-operational Stage: Cognitive

limitations

Answer 7

• Centration
– Focusing on one aspect of a problem or object

• Irreversible thought
– Cannot mentally undo an action

• Static thought
– Focusing on the end state rather than the changes
that transform one state into another

• Difficulty with classification
– Using criteria to sort objects on the basis of
characteristics such as shape, color, function
– Lack class inclusion, the ability to relate the whole
class (furry animals) to its subclasses (dogs, cats)

• Egocentrism

Question 8

Concrete Operational Stage

Answer 8

• Decentration
– Can focus on two or more dimensions of a problem at
once
• Reversibility of thought
– Can mentally reverse or undo an action
• Transformational thought
– Can understand the process of change from one state
to another

Question 9

Formal Operations Stage

Answer 9

• Formal operations contribute to positive
aspects of adolescent development.
– Sense of identity, complex thinking, appreciation
of humour

• Formal operations contributes to not-sopositive
aspects of adolescent development
– Confusion, adolescent idealism and rebellion
against ideas that are not logical
– Formal operational thought can also lead to
adolescent egocentrism