DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY PAST QUESTIONS

Explain the different external influences on children's behaviour in Bandura’s study on the transmission of aggression and Chaney et al.’s ‘Funhaler’ study. [4] Specimen

Bandura's study shows that behaviour can develop through the process of learning through observation/social learning processes.

• Children who observed a model behave aggressively towards a Bobo doll were likely to imitate such behaviour when later given the opportunity than children who observed either a non-aggressive model or no model at all.

On the other hand/whereas Chaney et al.'s study shows that behaviour can develop through the process of operant conditioning

• Adherence to asthma medication was improved because the use of the 'Funhaler' produced pleasant/positive consequences/reinforcement.

From Kohlberg’s study into the stages of moral development:

Describe the TWO stages of pre-conventional moral thinking. [4] Specimen

STAGE 1: Punishment Orientation

Unquestioning defence to a superior power. The physical consequence of an action determines its goodness or badness

STAGE 2: Instrumental Orientation

Right action consists of that which instrumentally satisfies the needs of others . Human relations are viewed in terms of those of the marketplace. Elements of fairness, of reciprocity and equal sharing are present but they are always interpreted in a physical pragmatic way. Reciprocity is a matter of ‘you scratch my back I scratch yours’

Bandura et al.’s study on the transmission of aggression is based on the principles of social learning theory. Outline social learning theory. [3] 2017

The Social Learning Theory says that people learn by observing the behaviours (1) of other people around them who serve as role models (1). Once behaviour has been observed it is likely to then be imitated (1).

Outline how the results of Bandura et al’s study on the transmission of aggression support social learning theory. [2] 2017

SLT is supported by Banduras results because children who observed an aggressive role model did imitate (1) aggressive behaviour, such as hitting the Bobo doll (1). Therefore imitation of aggressive behaviour was shown.

Outline how Lee et al.’s study links to the developmental area in psychology. [2] 2017

Lee et al's study is considered developmental because children at different ages were studied (1) which shows how attitudes towards truth telling and lying telling develop (1) Children aged 7, 9, and 11 were tested on their behaviours

Explain why Bandura et al.'s study on the transmission of aggression can be placed in the developmental area. [3] 2018

The developmental area often focuses on children as this is when significant development takes place (1).
This links to Bandura's study as it sees children as being particularly susceptible to social learning (1).
Bandura showed that many children will develop aggressive behaviour simply by imitating the actions of an adult whom they have recently witnessed being violent (1).

Describe the concept of freewill. [2] 2018

The freewill debate suggests that individuals can choose how they want to behave (1) and so have
responsibility for their own behaviour (1).

Explain how Lee et al.’s study on evaluations of lying and truth-telling may support the view that behaviour is determined. [3] 2018

Lee et al's study suggests that moral thinking is determined by the culture individuals grow up in (1). For example, findings showed that Chinese children differed from Canadian children in their evaluations of lying and truth-telling in pro-social situations: Chinese children tended to rate lying significantly more positively than Canadian children (1). Making decisions in relation to moral behaviour seemed to be the consequence of environmental factors over which an individual has little or no control (1).

Explain why Chaney et al.’s Funhaler study can be considered useful. [3] 2018

Chaney et al.'s study can be considered useful as the findings have practical implications (1) for how the use of rewards can encouraged desired behaviours which can be used to improve adherence to medical advice and/or reduce unwanted illness behaviours (1). The study showed how the positive rewards of reducing the negative effects of asthma brought about through the use of a Funhaler compared to a conventional device, encouraged children to improve adherence to their prescribed medical regimes which would, over time, result in an increase in health status (1).

Explain one way in which Bandura et al.’s study into aggression can be considered unethical. [3] 2019

• short term distress from observing aggressive acts

• long term effects of modelling aggressive behaviour

• children's inability to give informed consent

• children observed unknowingly - deception confidentiality breached due the footage being made available

Discuss to what extent Lee et al.’s contemporary study in developmental psychology changes out understanding to kohlbergs study from 1968. [5] 2019

Lee et al attempt to measure morality more objectively than Kohlberg through the use of quantitative data. This means we have a more secure understanding of moral development through more reliable evidence of patterns in moral thinking whether by age or culture however there may be some debate about how useful it is to quantify something as complex as morality in this way. It may be that Kohlberg's analysis is more useful due to the richness of his data. Having said this, Kohlberg research was limited by the fact that it only used boys, and Lee et al.'s inclusion of girls in their research gives a more representative view of children's moral development especially when studies between these two pieces have sometimes suggested that girls' moral development progresses differently from boys.

Kohlberg’s study of moral development raises a number of issues of validity.

Describe how two of these issues arise in the study. [4] 2020

• Low ecological validity - scenarios were hypothetical rather than real

• Social desirability bias - participants may want to appear more moral than they are

• High population validity - large sample

• Low population validity — original sample showed both cultural and gender bias

• High construct validity - the use of qualitative responses to the scenarios• Low construct validity - responses were then categorised to fit different stages of Kohlberg's theory

• Low internal validity - not a very controlled piece of research; many extraneous variables e.g. different scenarios, different styles of questioning

• Low temporal validity - concepts of morality change over time making findings out-of-date.

Give two features of the sample used in Bandura et al.’s (1961) study into aggression. [2] 2020

Number: 72 children

Gender: 36 boys, 36 girls

Age: 37-69 months (or 3-5 years) or mean 52 months

Target population: from Stanford University Nursery School

Outline one way in which this sample was biased. [2] 2020

• Cultural Bias: All American

• Age Bias: Represented younger children only

• Socio- Economic / Class Bias: In nursery at university

Chaney et al. (2004) used a repeated measures design in their Funhaler study.

Explain how this design was used. [2] 2021

Repeated measures was used as participants took part in both conditions of the experiment (1) first of all being assessed on the outcomes of using a standard inhaler and then being assessed on the outcomes of using the Funhaler (1).

Outline one strength of using a repeated measures design in this study. [2] 2021

One strength is that there are no participant variables acting as extraneous variables (1) so adherence to a particular inhaler cannot be attributed to the personality of the child or the support of the family (1)

Briefly discuss the extent to which Kohlberg’s (1968) study into moral development may be considered ethnocentric.

• More focus on American - through sampling and longitudinal research.

• However, five other cultures studied to support universality of theory.

• Still Western bias in overall sample.

• Stories may be more relevant to some cultures than others.

• Story was changed for Taiwanese participants showing some awareness of cultural differences.

• Implication that some cultures develop slower than others, implying a deficiency in cultural experience or possibly intellect.

Outline two defining principles and concepts of the developmental area. [4] 2021

• Change and development goes on throughout our lifetime and never stops..

• Behaviour may be learned (nurture) and develop on an individual basis.

• Early experiences my not impact until later in life. Development may be driven by nature i.e. maturation process.

• Development may happen in pre-determined stages.

Explain how Lee et al.’s 1997 study into lying and truth telling relates to these principles and concepts. [4] 2021

• Change and development goes on throughout our lifetime and never stops: early indications in Lee that morality develops with age and with experience so since these both change over time, moral development may be on-going.

• Behaviour may be learned (nurture) and develop on an individual basis: as evidenced by cross-cultural differences in moral development which follow different experiences.

• Development may be driven by nature i.e. maturation process: within cultures, evidence show morality changes with age and this is a universal finding.

Describe one application of the developmental area. [4] 2021

Education systems have made use of research that has shown that children's cognitive development happens in set stages (1).

This means that many systems have a curriculum have a sequence of learning that follows this pattern of development (1).

Because children are thought to mature at the same rate dependent on age, many systems also teach children in year group or key stages based on age (1). This means that children can be supported to develop at the right pace - rather than too quickly or too slowly as well as work with their peers as part of the process (1).

Consider the strengths and weaknesses of the developmental area in psychology. [8] 2021

Possible strengths:

• Better understanding of how people develop has potential to improve lives

• Allows early identification and intervention where there are developmental problems

• Considers both nature and nurture, and how they both impact on development

Possible weaknesses:

• Some theories of developmenttoo rigid/too deterministic e.g. Kohlberg

• Over-reliance on children for evidence e.g. relies on children's ability to articulate, easily influenced, etc

• Raises ethical issues in terms of reliance on children as participants

• Not always a good predictor of future behaviour where people do not follow expected patterns

• Longitudinal research suffers from attrition

• Cross-sectional research may not be using reliable comparisons

Outline the procedure used in Chaney et al.’s (2004) Funhaler study and briefly explain how this relates to the use of aversion therapy for homosexuality. [5] 2021

Possible key features for description of the study's procedure:

• standard spacer device versus Funhaler device

• amount of adherence was measured

• sample was children 1.5-6 years

• use of Funhaler was assessed through use of interviews with parents

• matched questionnaires were used to measure difference in adherence to each inhaler

• Funhaler designed to be self-reinforcing

How findings relate to the article

• behaviour change

• role of conditioning/learning

• impact of environment on behaviour

Explain how Chaney et al’s study into Funhalers relates to the theme of ‘external influences on behaviour. [3] 2022

Chaney et al found that children could be influenced through the process of reinforcement (1). They changed their behaviour by using the inhaler more (1) when it was presented as a Funhaler with bells and whistles.

The children using and no using the Funhaler clearly had different external influences (1).

Outline one strength and one weakness of the method used in Lee et al’s study into lying and truth telling. [4] 2022

Laboratory / Quasi Experiment

Possible strengths:

• high level of internal validity/control

• ability to reliably establish cause and effect

• practical/ethical (quasi)

Possible weaknesses:

• lack of ecological validity/artificial (lab)

• lack of construct validity

A strength Lee et al's lab experiment is that it was highly controlled (1) so that extraneous variables such as the order in which stories were presented did not affect the DV (1). However, a weakness is the lack of construct validity (1) as for the purpose of measurement, children's morality was measured by a simple rating scale (1).

Explain one issue with validity that arose in Bandura et al's study into aggressive role models. [3] 2022

• Internal validity related to high levels of control in the study.

• External validity related to generalisability of findings beyond the study.

• Ecological validity related to the artificiality of the set up.

• Population validity relating to the representativeness of the study.

• Construct validity related to how broadly the DV was measured.

The study had an issue with population validity (1) as it only used a narrow age range of children (1) which means it is difficult to generalise the findings and suggest that all children learn aggression in this way (1)

Outline one strength and one weakness of the type of data collected by Kohlberg in his study of moral development. [4] 2023

Possible strengths

• Rich in detail

• High in construct validity

• Allows for individual response

• More valid than quantitative data

Possible Weaknesses

• Too subjective / open to interpretation

• Harder to draw comparisons / look for patterns

• Less reliable than quantitative data

• Difficult to analyse

• Difficult to generalise

Explain one way Lee et al (1997) attempted to ensure the reliability of their study into lying and truth-telling. [3] 2023

Possible ways:

• Matching samples e.g age, province

• Random assignment of children to conditions

• Use of rating scale across conditions

• Randomisation of order of conditions

• All asked- ‘was what (s)he did good or bad?’

• Standardised procedures

Describe Bandura’s study into the transmission of aggression and briefly explain how this may relate to the effects of social media. [7] 2023

Possible key features for description of study:

• Background to study

• Aims and hypotheses

• Design

• Sample

• Procedure

• Materials

• Key findings

• Conclusions drawn

How the study relates to the effects of social media:

• People on social media may act as negative role models.

• Mental health behaviours may be observed and imitated from social media.