MIDTERM 2
What is Classification? Give an example from the video in class
Classification is understanding the use of hierarchies, classes, and subclasses. The example from class was when the lady asking the child to classify the three animals and the apple
Lev Vygotsky
Russian psychologist, writing around the same time as Piaget
Never had any contact with Piaget (communism)
His work was suppressed, so we didn’t know a lot about his theories until the 1980s, when he became very popular in the US
Thinking about the same problems from a completely different perspective
Conclusions are nearly all in opposition to Piaget’s fundamental thoughts!
Social constructivist theory
Sociocultural Learning: Mind in Society
Learning can never be separated from cultural context
Cognitive capacities are developed in and shaped by the places where children spend time (e.g., home, school, church, etc.)
Knowledge is created and reinforced through interactions with relative experts and the use of cultural tools
Language is a cultural tool!
Speech is Vygotsky’s most important cultural tool
Children learn from the speech around them, both socially and solitarily
Egocentric/private speech: verbal behavior directed at the self rather than others, with the purpose of enhancing concentration and performance
Eventually, speech is internalized
Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
Vygotsky’s term for the distance between a child’s ability to solve a problem alone and how much better they can do when guided by a more skilled social partner
Scaffolding: the process by which more skilled social partners structure tasks to boost children’s performance
Conflicting Thoughts
PIAGET
Development precedes learning
Children must have reached a certain level of maturity before they can learn certain things
Cognitive constructivist
Children manipulate their own environment and thus acquire knowledge
Teachers inhibit learning by forcing children into a passive role
Learning is individual and stage-like
You think before you speak
VYGOTSKY
Learning precedes development
Children cannot develop/reach the next level of mastery unless they first engage in social learning
Social constructivists
Children are active in learning through interactions with social partners
Teachers enhance learning by scaffolding children and helping them reach the next level of mastery
Learning is relational and incremental
You speak before you think
Social Information Processing Model
Social Cognition: how we process information about the social world
Especially important in middle childhood onward
Encoding
Information processing bias (attention, memory)
Mental Representation
Meaningful interpretation of the stimulus
Casual attributions
Negative automatic thoughts and cognitive errors
Response Accessing
Possible responses from long-term memory (verbalization, motor activities, experienced affect)
Response Evaluation
Decision making (consequences, acceptability, moral)
Enactment
Behavior (verbalization, motor activity, autonomic activation)
Lemerise & Arsenio, 2000
Updated Crick and Dodge’s SIP model to acknowledge the importance of emotions in influencing each step of the model
Hostile Attribution Bias
Tendency to ascribe harmful intent to the ambiguous behavior of others
Hostile attribution bias is associated with reactive aggression
Risk for HAB in early childhood:
Weak theory of mind
Poor emotional understanding
Lower IQ
Less effortful control
Empathy
Moral feeling
An affective response to another’s feelings with an emotional response that is similar to the other persons feelings
Perspective-taking, discerning the inner psychological states of others
Early Infancy
Lack of distinction between feelings of self and others
Sensitive parenting provides foundation
1-2 Years
More genuine feelings of concern
Early Childhood
Respond appropriately to other’s distress
Middle Childhood
Develop empathy for those struggling (3.g., the poor, socially outcast)
Promoting Empathy in Children
“Empathy is caught, not taught” - Mary Gordon
Talk about your and others feelings
Empathize with the child
Practice taking others perspectives
Pretend play
Read stories
Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development
Moral reasoning becomes more sophisticated with development
Social interaction is critical for development of moral reasoning
Preconventional Level
“Good” and “bad: are interpreted in terms of external rewards and punishments
Believer authority figures
Stage 1, Avoiding Punishment:
Heteronomous morality
Focus is on obedience
Stage 2, Aiming at a Reward:
Self-interest - “what’s in it for me?”
Exchange
Conventional Level
Internalize society’s conventions
Adolescence - adulthood
Stage 3, Good boy/girl attitude:
Want others to approve of them
Avoid disapproval
Stage 4, Loyalty to law and order:
Do what you are “supposed” to do
Postconventional Level
Recognizes alternative moral courses, explores options, and then decides on a personal moral code
Stage 5, Justice and Spirit of the Law:
Values, rights, and principles transcend the law
Law = social contract
Stage 6, Universal ethical principle:
Equality, dignity, respect
Rase even among adults
Moral Reasoning at Kolberg’s Stages:
Why Should You Share?
Level 1: I get in trouble when I don’t share
Level 2: If I share my toys, they’ll share their toys
Level 3: Sharing is a nice thing to do
Level 4: The rule at home is that we share. If nobody shared, then we’d fight all the time
Level 5: Sharing is right and fair. Sharing is how you be a good citizen
Level 6: The world is unjust, and sharing is the way to equalize resources
Criticisms of Kohlberg’s Theory
Too much emphasis on moral thought, not enough on moral behavior
Kohlberg says moral thinking is deliberate, but it could something be intuitive
He thought emotions played a negative role, but they can often be helpful
Based on male norms that put abstract principles above relationships and concern for each other (justice perspectives vs. care perspective)
The Social Intuitionist Model
John Hadit
The elephant and the rider
Emotion and rationality in moral decision-making