psychology brain development (copy)

what happens in the brain 3-4 weeks

what happens in the brain 3-4 weeks

A neural tube develops in the brain. (split into forebrain, midbrain and hindbrain)

what happens in the brain by week 5

The forebrain and hindbrain split into further parts.

Forebrain- anterior(front) posterior(back)

Hindbrain- cerebellum and medulla oblongata

what happens in the brain by week 6

Cerebellum is visible. Controls physical skills and is involved in fear responses.

what happens in the brain at 20 weeks

Medulla oblongata is fully formed in the hindbrain infront of the cerebellum. Controls involuntary responses. e.g breathing and sneezing.

Sensorimonitor

ages 0-2. Children explore by repeatedly doing things. Develop object permanence and self-concept

To help:

need stimulation and materials to practice skills and build schemas.

Use bright colours to help children know the difference between them.

Singing and rhythm can stimulate children’s language + development

hearing different sounds and touching different textures

Pre operational

ages 2-7. Symbolic play,Ego centric, Animism, centration, start of reasoning, irreversibility , lack of conservation

To help:

children must do things themselves rather than watch someone else to keep building schemas.

Lots of experiences to extend understanding

individual learning must be encouraged and developed

using models,objects,visual aids can help learning whilst keeping instructions short

concrete operational

ages 7-11. Logical thinking development, decentration, seriation, classification, reversibillity, conservation, Abstract thinking is difficult

To help:

ask children to concentrate on more than one aspect of an issue

formal operational

12+. complex+abstract thoughts and ideas, and more at once

conservation

length,quantity and number remain the same even when their appearance is changed

centration

focusing on one feature of a situation and ignoring other relevant features

schema

mental representations of the worls based on oneś own experience.

assimilation

incorporating new experiences into existing schemas

accomodation

A schema no longer works and has to be changed to deal with a new experience, a new schema is formed

equilibrium

when all of the childs schemas explain all that they experience and they are in a state of mental balance

Strengths of piagets theory

Has practical applications, lead to lots of other research that also prove that the stages exist and that children build knowledge through schemas

weaknesses of piagets theory

Childs background can influence their development(piagets ignored this), Studies have shown that children can do things earlier than piaget thought, Data comes from interviews+observations with children —> his interpretations could have been subjective—> bias results, Lack validity(other similar studies in realistic settings produced different findings)

Aim of piaget and inhelder three mountains task

Investigate the extent to which children of different ages were egocentric.

procedure of 3 mountains task

100 children : 21 between 4-6y, 30 between 6-8y, 33 between 8-9y, 16 between 9-12y

a model of 3 mountains was made. 4 different view points A,B,C,D

Trial 1: child is given 3 pictures and has to arrange the mountains based on how the doll sees them. repeated until doll has been in all positions. then the child moves through all positions and does the same. Child is also asked to reconstruct previous viewpoints.

Trial 2: child and doll moved in same way but child has to pick what doll sees from 10 pictures

Trial 3 : child is shown a picture and has to decide where to place doll

Results + conclusions of three mountains task

(4-6 show ego centrism,7-9 start to understand different perspectives)

Up to 7 children are ego centric, 7+ become non ego centric, older children can create menal representations of what others can see,Supports piagets stages of development

Strengths of three mountains task

used qualitative and quantitive data,reliable, Useful(parents can understand why child cant see different point of view)

weaknesses of three mountains task

Lacks ecological validity, lacks population validity

Mindset

A set of beliefs someone has that guides how someone responds to or interprets a situation

Ability

What someone can do(e.g maths ability) Dweck suggests- Can be seen as fixed or as able to be improved

Effort

when you try to do better using determination

Experimental evidence to Dwecks theory

Praising students ability led to fixed mindset and not being able to cope with set backs. Praising effort led to perserverance(children sticking to things). Low achieveing students that then used growth mindset did better than the control group that didnt have that learning

Strengths of Dweck’s mindset theory

Practical applications(Teachers/Parents can focus on praising effort), theory is positive and shows that change is possible, Yeager and Dweck’s reaserch found that adolescents could deal better if they had a growth mindset.

Weaknesses of Dweck’s mindset theory

studies have Artifical settings, Studies ignore effects of giving feedback without judgement about the child or their ability,

Aim of gunderson et al study

to see if children are affected by different types of praise in a naturalistic setting

gunderson et al procedure

29 boys, 24 girls and their parents.

Longitudinal design- children were observed in their homes at ages 14,26 and 38months.

Researchers observed the use of parents praise-person,process or other.

5 years later their ideas about behavior were measured and related to the type of praise they recived.

person praise vs process praise

person - Ability: fixed mindset

process - effort : growth mindset

strengths of gunderson et al

standardised procedures(easy to repeat)high reliability

high ecological validity due to naturalistic setting. sample represents demographics

weaknesses of gunderson et al

might cause demand characteristic because parents knew they were being observed. Lacks generalizability due to all of the samples being from chicago. Parents were told study was about child development - parents couldn’t give informed consent(ethic problems)

gunderson et al results + conclusion

there was a gender difference in process praise- boys-24.4% girls-10.3%. Culture differences- 64% white,17%african american, 11%hispanic, 8%multirational.

the more process praise in childhood the more likely to develop Incremental motivational frameworks.

No relationship was found between person praise and entity motivational frameworks.

A clear relationship between parents use of process praise and incremental motivational frameworks later in life was found.

Morals

standards of right and wrong behaviour that can differ between cultures and the situation

Moral development

childrens growing understanding about whats right and wrong

Heteronomous

rules put in place by others

Autonomous

rules can be decided by the individual person

piaget Moral developmental stages of children STAGE 1

ages 5-9 : Heteronomous(rules are given by adults). Beliefs:rules tell you what is right or wrong and cannot be changed. consequence dictate severity of behavior not intentions(pre-operational + concrete operational)

piaget Moral development stages of children STAGE 2

age 10+: Autonomous morality/moral relativism. (rules are changeable under certain circumctances and with mutual consent)(concrete+formal operational)

Kohlberg theory of moral development Level 1 Preconventional

up to 9: Judge what is right or wrong based on the consequences they expect for themselves. Rules cannot be changed

Stage 1- what to do so that I don’t get punished?

Stage 2: knows they might get punished. Thinks ‘what is in it for me?’ what benefit can i get from being moral.

Kohlberg theory of moral development Level 2 Conventional

most young people and adults : sees themselves as a good person. Reasoning comes from group norms.(what society thinks is right)

stage 3 : acts like everyone else because they want to be liked and seen as a good member of society.Confoming with ethics of the community.

stage 4 : maintaining social order by obeying authority. Important to follow the rules. ‘How can I maintain law and order?’

Kohlberg theory of moral development Level 3 post conventional

10% of people : Individual has own ideas about what is good/bad. Understand that there are moral principals.

stage 5 : laws are social contracts and in some cases they have to be broken

stage 6 : follows universal ethical idea at complete disconnect with what society thinks and what the rules say.(moral reasoning is abstract)

weaknesses of moral development stage theories

used artificial stories that might not represent real thinking.(lacks ecological validity) No real consequences from the decisions made in the story.Kohlberg had a male only sample.(lacks population validity)

willinghams theory

factual knowledge before skill. Practice is essential especially to make things automatic. Effort and self regulation are necessary.

Nature vs Nurture

nature- the idea that how we develop comes from our genes

nurture- how we develop comes from our experiences + environment

strengths of willinghams theory

positive application to students- can be applied to education and other situations to promote a childs development in a positive way.(practical applications)

supporting reaserch- Repacholi and Gopnik’s study provides experimental support showing yound children were not as egocentric as Piaget thought. experiment may lack validity

weaknesses of willinghams theory

Ignores individual differences - doesn’t emphasise the importance of individual differences for learning.

genetic inheritance is difficult to change- though the theory gives strategies to help develop what is in someones genes cannot be changed easily using strategies.