Developmental psychology

What develops at 3-4 weeks?

Long tube containing the fore, hand and mid brain.

What develops at 5 weeks?

The brain splits into the anterior and the posterior (apart from the midbrain).

What happens at 6 weeks?

The cerebellum becomes visible that controls fear and muscle activity and is crucial for motor control.

What occurs at 20 weeks?

The medulla oblongata connects the brain to the spinal cord and is responsible for automatic functions.

Forebrain

Consists of two hemispheres.

Hindbrain

Contains the medulla oblongata, pons and cerebellum.

Stage 1 of Piagets cognitive development

Sensorimotor stage (0-2) - child discovers the world through its senses, motor skills and repeated actions while developing object permanence.

Stage 2 of Piagets cognitive development

Pre-operational stage (2-7) - child has better communication, numerical and speech skills. They begin to think symbolically and engage in imaginative play, but lack logical reasoning. (very egocentric)

Stage 3 of Piagets cognitive development

Concrete operational stage (7-11) - child begins to think logically, stop being egocentric, understand reversibility.

Stage 4 of Piagets cognitive development

Concrete operational stage (11+) - develop abstract thinking and complex morality.

Seriation

Sorting objects.

Classification

Naming and identifying objects according to appearance.

Reversibility

Something can be returned to its original state after being changed.

Object permanence

Just because you cannot see something docent mean its not there.

Animism

Child believes inanimate objects have feelings.

Transductive reasoning

False association → falsely assuming two different things are similar.

Decentration

The ability to understand multiple views and perspectives of a situation

Conservation of matter

Understanding that something docent change just because the shape changes → shape docent equate to quantity.

Stimulus

Any object or thing that causes a sensory or behavioural change.

Schema

Categories of knowledge that help us understand the world.

What was Piagets theory of cognitive development?

Children learn through schemas and mental frameworks to organise and interpret information.

Assimilation

Modifying our experiences to fit into our existing beliefs.

Accommodation

Changing or altering our existing schemas in light of new information → also when new schemas form.

Equilibrium

Mental balance when all our schemas account for all our experiences.

Strengths of Piagets cognitive theory

• Practical application → can be used in education to design classroom activities, understand that children develop at different rates.

• Evidence → Piagets and Inhalers 3 mountain task proves the presence of egocentrism in the sensorimotor stage.

Weaknesses of Piagets cognitive theory

• Subjectivity → observations of selected children required Piagets personal interpretation which could be subjective (not generalisable).

• Social and cultural → Piagets didn’t look at the external factors that could affect a child development. Pierre Dasen ( 1994) found that Aboriginal children develop at conservation at a later stage.

Carol Dwecks mindset theory

Mindsets are a set of beliefs about ability

Ability

What we can do.

Effort

Improving through determination.

What is a fixed mindset?

Belief that our abilities are unchangeable.

→ ‘I can’t do it’

What is a growth mindset?

Belief that through effort and practice our abilities can be changes.

→ ‘Ill try my best"‘

What role do out teachers play in our mindset development?

Teachers influence children’s mindsets impacting their willingness to take on challenges, self-esteem and ability to improve.

Strengths of Carol Dwecks mindset theory

• Practical application → used in education to encourage growth mindset through praise.

• Evidence → Gunderson et al (2013) proved that a growth mindset can be developed through a process praise.

• Positive → encourages social development.

Weaknesses of Carol Dwecks mindset theory

• Lack of ecological validity → most supporting studies are done in artificial setting so they don’t reflect real life scenarios.

• Shirt in focus → too much responsibility is put on the child rather than the teachers abilities and teaching quality (feedback)

Factors of Willighmans learning theory

• Factual knowledge is essential for problem solving and learning

• Factual knowledge precedes skill

• Practice + effort is essential for mastering knowledge and skills

Strategies for developments

1. Cognitive development → introduce new problems suited to a child developmental stage

2. Physical development → practice and effort are key in developing motor skills

3. Social development → encourage decentration, teach impulse control through delayed gratification to build self regulation.

Strengths of Willighams learning theory

• Practical application → used in education to support children development

• Evidence → Repacholi and Gophik (1997) found that children need prior knowledge to perform tasks.

Weaknesses of Willighams learning theory

• Individual differences → the theory is universal and docent consider individual differences that could affect learning (genetic influence)

• Unified → Theory is drawn from multiple branches of psychology such as neuroscience, cognitive and memory.

Piaget and Inhelders (1956) three mountain task : Aim

• Study children’s perspectives.

• Understand the relationship between a childs viewpoints and how they perceive other viewpoints.

Piaget and Inhelders (1956) three mountain task : Sample + Set up

• 100 children:

  → 21 - 4 to 6 years old

  → 30 - 6 to 8 years old

  → 33 - 8 to 9 years old

  → 16 - 9 to 12 years old

• 1m² model with 3 distinct mountains:

  Smallest - green, house on top and a path down.

  Medium - brown, red cross with a stream.

  Tallest - grey with snow.

• Four viewpoints around the model → A,B,C,D

• A doll is moved to different positions.

• 10 phots taken at different angles.

• Three coloured boards (green, brown and grey) shaped as mountains.

Piaget and Inhelders (1956) three mountain task : Procedure/trials

1. Board arrangement → Child arrangers the boards from their own perspective then the dolls.

2. Photograph selection → Child selects photo matching the dolls viewpoint.

3. Picture matching → Child places doll where chosen photo was taken.

Piaget and Inhelders (1956) three mountain task : Results

1. 4-6 (pre-operational)

   Trial 1 - arranged based on own perspective or reverted dolls viewpoint.

   Trial 2 - photo from own perspective or random one.

   Trial 3 - placed randomly or in starting position.

2. 7-9 - inconsistent reflection on dolls viewpoint.

3. 9-12 - consistently recognised dolls viewpoint.

Piaget and Inhelders (1956) three mountain task : Conclusion

1. Pre-operational stage → egocentric, can recall perspective but have trouble predicting others.

2. Concrete operational stage → begin to understand different perspectives, initially choose different own perspectives but egocentrism declines as the progresed.

Piaget and Inhelders (1956) three mountain task : Strengths

• Qualitative and quantitative.

• Standardised ( can check for reliability).

• Evidence → Repacholi and Gophik found that younger children could identify different perspectives.

Piaget and Inhelders (1956) three mountain task : Weaknesses

• Hellen Broke (1975) → believed tasks were too difficult and repeated the study with a more familiar doll and simpler tasks and found that 79% of 3years old could tell different perspectives.

• Lack of ecological validity → Highly controlled experiment, making it unrealistic and unable to be applied to the real world as well as task being too difficult.

Gunderson et al (2013) impact of praise on a child : Background + Aim

Background:

1. Person praise → entity motivational framework “you’re so smart” fixed and used on innate traits.

2. Process praise → incremental motivational framework “you worked hard” improve with effort

Aim: Investigate whether person praise or orioles praise can impact a child motivational frame work 5 years later.

Gunderson et al (2013) impact of praise on a child : Sample

• 53 children from Chicago → 29 boys and 24 girls.

• Selected from larger study on language that contained 63 children.

• Diverse within Chicago demographic.

Gunderson et al (2013) impact of praise on a child : Procedure

• Doubt blind technique → neither researcher of parents knew aim.

• Longitudinal study → observed at 14, 26 and 38 months then 5 years later.

• Parent - child interactions → engage in normal daily activities + 90min video session to analyse praise.

• Follow up study → Children complete questionaries on intelligence, morality and motivators (18 items used to measure motivational framework).

Gunderson et al (2013) impact of praise on a child : Results

• Only 3% of all comments were praise

• Types of praise:

  → process = 18%

  → person = 16%

  → other = 66%

• Boys received more praise (24.4%) then girls (10.3%).

Gunderson et al (2013) impact of praise on a child : Conclusion

• Person praise doesn’t lead to a fixed mindset + entity framework.

• Process fraise does lead to a growth mindset + incremental framework.

• Early person praise lead to fixed mindset

• Boys receive more praise than girls.

Gunderson et al (2013) impact of praise on a child : Strengths

• Natural experiment → done in child home therefore had high ecological validity.

• Double blind → reduced demand characteristics and researcher bias (validity)

Gunderson et al (2013) impact of praise on a child : Weaknesses

• Unethical → parents thought it was an investigation on language development (deception) but could be resolve in debrief.

• Demand characteristics → parents being observed may change their behaviour.

Morality

Understanding between right and wrong.

Morals

Specific rules guiding everyday behaviour.

What is Kohlberg’s 1st stage of morality?

Pre-conventional morality (6+)

• Obedience + punishment → actions based on avoiding punishment.

• Individualism + exchange → moral choices based on personal gain.

What is Kohlberg’s 2nd stage of morality?

Conventional morality (YA)

• Relationships + social approval → maintain a good reputation that aligns with social norms.

• Law + order → duty to follow laws and maintain social order.

What is Kohlberg’s 3rd stage of morality?

Post-conventional morality (10% of pop.)

• Social contract → laws are social agreements open to change for the greater good.

• Universal ethical principles → personal moral code away from social norms.

Piagets moral development

Moral reasoning develops through childhood due to disequilibrium and low egocentrism.

Stage 1 of Piagets moral development

Pre-moral (0-5)

• Low understanding of rules and lack of complex thoughts.

• Behaviour is regulated outside of child.

Stage 2 of Piagets moral development

Heteronomous/moral realism (5-9)

• Rules are rigid given by adults or God.

• Consequences dictate behaviour not intentions.

Stage 3 of Piagets moral development

Autonomous/moral relativsim (10+)

• Co-operation

• Rules are changeable under certain circumstances and mutual consent.

Damon (1999) - developing moral self

1. Early infancy → global empathy.

2. 1-3 → recognise distress but can respond right.

3. Childhood → can understand multiple perspectives and can respond to distress.

4. 10-12 → aware of social issues, societal fairness and injustice.