January exams SAQs

Psychology of the early years

1. Define what a group is and explain the minimal group paradigm (7 marks)

• A group is two or more individuals who interact with each other and are co-dependent in a sense that they influence each other because of their goals and needs

• Ingroup (us), outgroup (them), ingroup bias (tendency to favour one's own group)

• Minimal group paradigm: method for investigating the minimal characteristics required for discrimination between individuals to occur

Describe the methods and findings of Zimbardo's (1971) prison experiment study (8 marks)

• Zimbardo created a mock prison in the basement of Stanford university

• 24 male volunteers (psychologically screened) who were randomly assigned to conditions: prisoners or guards

• Found that participants adopted the behaviours associated with their assigned role and conformed

• Some guards behaved in a brutal and sadistic manner

• Some prisoners became docile with severe emotional disturbance

• Zimbardo explained that they complied with the expected role

• Study was meant to be 2 weeks but was terminated after 6 days due to it being unethical

Describe the theory of play from Piaget and include a criticism of the approach. Use research to support your answer. (8 marks)

• Linked to Piaget's theory of cognitive development

• He suggested that there were 3 stages of play development: sensori-motor play, symbolic play and games with rules

• Sensori-motor play: children learn through their senses

• Symbolic play: children are capable of reasoning that one object can represent another

• Games with rules: children begin to negotiate with other children

• A limitation of this theory is that it is a very limited perspective since it suggests that children only take part in one type of play and only play at certain ages.

Ainsworth used the Strange Situation study to develop key attachment styles within the attachment literature. Describe the Strange Situation procedure and provide details on the attachment styles which were developed. (8 marks)

• Controlled observation conducted in a room with a 2-way mirror with 100 white middle class mothers and infants 12-24 months old.

• Made up of 7 episodes, each being 3 minutes long

• Ainsworth observed: exploration behaviour and using mother as a secure base, stranger anxiety, separation anxiety and reunion behaviour

• This led to the development of 3 different attachment types: secure attachment, insecure avoidant and insecure ambivalent.

• Secure (B): uses mother as secure base, moderately high stranger and separation anxiety, happy during reunion

• Insecure avoidant (A): doesn't use mother as secure base, low stranger and separation anxiety, no change in behaviour during reunion

• Insecure ambivalent ( C ):uses mother as secure base but no exploration, extremely high stranger and separation anxiety, distress upon reunion

Piaget’s view of cognitive development is the most appropriate view to use. Discuss this statement using evidence for your answer. (8 marks)

• Piaget's theory is made up of 4 stages

• On the one hand: child-centred when explaining learning

• On the other hand: doesn't take into account social or cultural factors, where Vygotsky's theory may be more suitable

• Doesn't recognise the importance of additional support, where Bruner's theory of scaffolding may be beneficial - suggests that children are supported until competence where stabilisation is gradually removed.

• Conclusion: summary and answer the question

You have been asked by a friend to explain what benefits play has. Use research evidence to support your answer.

(8 marks)

To support physical development (examples of physical play) and become skilled at manipulating objects (Ceyne & Rubin, 1983)

    To support learning, cognitive and social development

    (Lillard, 2002  -  Piaget, 1962  -  Pelligrini, 2000)

    To understand emotions (Denham, 1986)

    To learn adult roles

    To support language development (e.g., Smilansky, sociodramatic play)

Summarise the main claim of Gleitman’s Syntactic Bootstrapping Hypothesis (2 marks)

Children use syntactic cues (e.g. sentence structure, number of arguments) to infer the meanings of new verbs.

According to Frith and Ehri’s models, what distinguishes the alphabetic stage from the logographic stage of literacy? (2 marks)

• Logographic: reliance on visual cues

• Alphabetic: use of phoneme–grapheme correspondences

Outline two arguments for and two arguments against the nativist approach to language acquisition. (4 marks)

For: universality of language; rapid acquisition
Against: ignores variation; underplays social interaction

Describe two key characteristics of the alphabetic stage of literacy development. ( 2 marks)

• Use of phoneme–grapheme correspondences

• Sounding out words and blending phonemes

Explain the role of phonological awareness in the alphabetic stage of literacy development. (2 marks)

Children must identify and manipulate sounds in spoken language to map them onto letters.

What distinguishes the orthographic stage from the alphabetic stage? Refer to both reading strategy and linguistic knowledge. (2 marks)

Orthographic readers recognise words automatically using spelling patterns and morphemes, rather than sounding out each phoneme.

Explain why language development is limited during the sensorimotor stage. (2 marks)

Cognitive representations are limited; infants rely on immediate perception rather than symbolic thought.

Describe two features of thinking in the preoperational stage of language development (2 marks)

• Egocentrism

• Symbolic thinking but limited logical operations

Describe two characteristics of the formal operational stage of language development (2 marks)

• Abstract reasoning

• Hypothetical and deductive thinking

Describe two operationalisations of aggression and explain one limitation for each. (4 marks)

Analogues of behaviour (e.g., Bobo doll) – may lack ecological validity

Self-ratings (questionnaires) – may be biased, social desirability.

Explain how modelling can increase prosocial behaviour in both children and adults, giving one study example for each. (4 marks)

Children: Rushton & Teachman (1978) – observed adult donating tokens → more likely to donate. Adults: Bryan & Test (1967) – observed model helping woman with flat tyre → more likely to help.

Discuss one evolutionary explanation of altruism, including a relevant study or concept. (2 marks)

Kin selection: helping relatives increases inclusive fitness. Mutualism: Stevens et al. (2005) – cooperation benefits both.

Explain object permanence and describe one study used to investigate it

(4 marks)

Object permanence is the understanding that objects exist when out of sight. Baillargeon (1987) showed infants as young as 3.5 months expected objects to continue existing, challenging Piaget’s later age estimate

Explain Siegler’s overlapping waves theory

(4 marks)

Siegler suggested children use multiple strategies simultaneously, not just one. Over time, more effective strategies dominate, but less effective ones may still be used. This explains gradual cognitive change and variability in problem-solving.

Outline Case’s Neo-Piagetian theory

(4 marks)

Case expanded Piaget by emphasising working memory and processing speed. Cognitive development depends on brain maturation, practice (automatisation), and formation of conceptual structures. This explains why children may solve some tasks but struggle with others (horizontal décalage).