Psych Paper 2 - Developmental Psych

Maturation theory

Brain development is the result of genetic mechanisms, babies are born with a ‘innate modules’ and ‘core knowledge’ relevant to the world. In a sense, newborns are pre-programed for brain development. Babies are born with a developmental clock, which determines when certain behaviours occur, such as walking, talking, and thinking.

Study - maturation theory

Geidd (2004)

• 161 participants, scanned every two years from 6-20

• MRI scans, brain develops front to back, prefrontal cortex develops last (impulse control)

• findings align with deterministic epigenesis (epigenetic, environmental, and predetermined genetics influence development in a predictable and linear manner)

Brain development intro - Biological

• Brain development is the lifelong process by which the human brain forms, rewires, and refines its structure and function. This occurs through myelination, neural pruning, and growth.

• majority of brain development occurs during childhood and adolescence.

• babies are born with innate reflexes, such as sucking and grasping, and they possess some basic sensory abilities, synaptic growth is most significant in the first year of life, but continues during childhood and into adolescence.

Eval of maturation theory

• Biological basis, supported by genetic research and studies on development showing certain milestones occour regardless of environmental impacts.

• Predictability, helps understanding typical development and deviations from typical growth can indicate underlying neurological conditions.

• Underestimates environmental influence, fails to explain variations in cognitive abilities and skill acquisition due to learning and environmental exposure.

• Lack of flexibility, does not account for neuroplasticity, where the brain adapts and reorganises in response to experience or injury.

Skill learnt hypothesis

brain development is driven by learning and neuroplasticity. The environment and personal experience play an important role in development. This and maturation arent mutually exclusive, but key changes seen in development are attributed to neuroplasticity.

Reorganisation and myelination of the higher brain centers (PFC) continues until at least the age of 20, allowing teenagers to process information faster, and perform higher-level cognitive activities. However PFC is among the last to develop.

Study - skill-learnt hypothesis

• Werker

• Cross-sectional study, infants conditioned to hear phonemes

• up to 8 months old, infants could distinguish differences between phonemes, including unfamilliar ones (hindi and english) and after 8 months this ability declined, especially for phonemes not in their native language.

• link to skill learnt: initially brain has broad, flexible abilities (probabilistic epigenesis). Experience refines neural specialisation, their ability to distinguish phonemes declines as they adapt to their linguistic environment.

Link between maturation and skill

Brain development is not entirely determined by genetics, but rather shaped by experience over time, which aligns more with the idea that learning and environment play a key role in development.

Eval - Skill learnt hypothesis

• accounts for individualistic differences

• Neuroplasticity support, aligns with modern neuroscience showing that the brain reorganises based on learning and experience.

• Difficult to measure, interaction between genes and the environment is hard to measure due to the complex nature

• less predictability, hard to establish timelines since learning varies greatly.

Piagets theory

Piaget believed children developed through a series of stages, with each being defined by changes in behaviour. These stages describe changes in ways of thinking, and these stages are the same for everyone; the way in which we develop is universal.

Four stages

SPCF

• sensorimotor stage

• preoperational stage (focus)

• concrete operational stage

• formal operational stage

Preoperational stage

• 2-7 years old

• child learns to speak, they can form ideas, however these ideas are based around egocantrism: the child can only see the world from his or her viewpoint.

• Characterised by speech development and symbolic thinking

Eval of theory

• pioneering theory, cognitive changes can be explained through biological maturation

• Major impacts on education: people understood what children could do at different ages, and tailored learning to their capabilities.

• Criticised for not being age-appropriate

• Research was mainly cross sectional, used children at different ages but not the same children so growth cannot be observed.

Vygotsky theory

Argues that sociocultural impacts need to be considered when looking at development in children. Culture provides knowledge and teaches children what to think. Vigotskys theory suggests that a child’s cog dev is based on interaction with the world and other people. Interaction with an more knowledgeable other (MKO) leads to development.

Zone of proximal development (ZPD)

Difference of what a child can do unaided and what a child can do with the help of another, which eventually leads them to learn a skill. This is aided by a MKO who understands the skill better than the child.

Eval of Vygotsky

• Emphasises importance of social learning - children learn through interaction, which is supported by nichols collaborative learning study

• Accounts for cultural differences - unlike piaget which assumes learning in stages is universal, vygotsky accounts for social contexts influencing cog dev.

• overemphasis on social factors - undermines biological maturation

• Difficult to test experimentally - concepts like internalisation and the ZPD are abstract and challenging to measure objectively, making empirical validation difficult.

Vygotsky vs Piaget

differences

• social vs individual learning

• stages vs continuous development

similarities

• both viewed children as active learners who construct knowledge

• both influenced education