ap psych unit 6 - developmental psychology

moral development

thoughts, behaviors, and feelings regarding standards of being right and wrong

Lawrence Kohlberg

Sought to describe the development of moral reasoning, the thinking that occurs as we consider right and wrong, primarily concerned with justice

preconventional morality

before age 9, children show morality to avoid punishment or gain reward

conventional morality

by early adolescence, social rules and laws are upheld for their own sake

postconventional morality

affirms people’s agreed-upon rights or follows personally perceived ethical principles

preconventional morality - stage 1

punishment and obedience; obey rules to avoid punishment

preconventional morality - stage 2

personal reward; conforms to receive rewards

conventional morality - stage 3

good boy / good girl; gain approval / avoid disapproval

conventional morality - stage 4

law and order; conform to authority to avoid guilt / dutiful citizen

post conventional morality - stage 5

social contract; individuals reason that values rights and principles that transcend the law to protect fundamental human rights and values

post conventional morality - stage 6

universal ethics principle; moral standard based on universal human rights; people will follow conscience, even though decision might involve personal risk

Kohlberg research method

interview method

criticisms of Kohlberg

Carol Gilligan - based on responses on boys, girls pay more attention to situational factors than moral absolutes

Kohlberg is concerned with moral thinking but difference between thinking and action

Kohlberg is bias towards upper-middle-class values of western men

Carol Gilligan

Proposed the stages of the Ethics of Care theory for female moral development; women care more about personal relationships

maturation

growth process through orderly changes; experience does not control it, but helps adjust

maturation in Stages

1. brain development
2. memory
3. motor development

cognitive development

all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating

Jean Piaget

Piaget showed that young children think in strikingly different ways compared to adults

schema

concept or framework that organized and interprets information; children form schemas as they experience new situations and events

assimilation

interpreting our new experience in terms of our existing schemas

accomodation

adapting our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information

sensorimotor stage

experiencing the world through senses and actions

sensorimotor - age and phenomena

birth to nearly two years; object permanence, stranger anxiety

preoperational

representing things with words and images; uses intuitive rather than logical reasoning

preoperational - age and phenomena

two to about six or seven years; pretend play, egocentrism, language development

concrete operational

thinking logically about concrete events; grasping concrete analogies and preforming arithmetical operations

concrete operational - age and phenomena

about seven to eleven years old; conservation, mathematical transformations

formal operational

abstract reasoning

formal operational - age and phenomena

about twelve through adulthood; abstract logic, potential for mature moral reasoning

egocentrism

inability on the part of a child in the preoperational stage of development to see any point of view other than their own - theory of mind (ability to infer others’ mental states)

centration

refers to the tendency to focus on only one aspect of a situation, problem, or object; occurs from 4-7; child begins to develop logic or reasoning

Piaget’s stage theory is useful, but today’s researchers believe

* development is a continuous process
* children show some mental abilities and operations at an earlier age than piaget thought
* formal logic is a smaller part of cognition, even for adults, than piaget thought

Lev Vygotsky

Russian developmental psychologist, developed a theory of how the child’s mind grows through interaction with the social environment; alternative to Piaget

zone of proximal development (ZPD)

with the range between the level at which a child can solve a problem working alone with some difficulty, and the level at which a child can solve a problem with the assistance of adults or more-skilled children

scaffolding

process in which a more skilled learner gives help to a less skilled learner, reducing the amount of help as the less skilled learner becomes more capable

attachment

the emotional bond between an infant and the primary caregiver, shown in young children by their seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress on separation

John Bowlby

children are biologically predisposed to develop attachment to caregivers as the result of genetics; evolutionary means of increasing survival; father of attachment theory

reactive attachment disorder (RAD)

a rare condition in which an infant or young child doesn’t establish healthy attachments with parents or caregivers

Harry Harlow

showed that infants bond with surrogate mothers because of bodily contact and not because of nourishment; contact comfort

deprivation of attachment

children become withdrawn, frightened, unable to develop speech

Konrad Lorenz

familiarity is another factor that causes attachment; in some animals (goslings), imprinting is the cause of attachment; critical period

Mary Ainsworth

attachment happens through a complex set of interactions between mothers and infants; strange situation experiments

Ainsworth attachment differences

secure, avoidant, anxious/ambivalent

Diana Baumrind

three parenting styles: authoritarian, permissive, authoritative

Albert Bandura

social learning theory helps explain social development in childhood

Sigmund Freud

psychosexual stages of development theory helps explain social development in childhood

Erik Erikson

contended that each stage of life has its own psychosocial task, a crisis that needs resolution, to become a successful complete person

infancy psychosocial issue

trust vs mistrust

toddlerhood psychosocial issue

autonomy vs shame and guilt

preschool psychosocial issue

initiative vs guilt

elementary school psychosocial issue

competence vs inferiority

adolescence psychosocial issue

identity vs role confusion

young adulthood psychosocial issue

intimacy vs isolation

middle adulthood psychosocial issue

generativity vs stagnation

late adulthood psychosocial issue

integrity vs despair

gender socialization

process in which children learn these gender roles; occurs through four major agents: family, education, peer groups, and mass media; aware of gender roles by two or three

social learning theory

albert bandura; emphasizies learning through observation and imitation of models, attributes gender role development

gender schema theory

children develop schemas for being male or female by 9 months, and once the schema is in place, children will identify themselves and will notice other members of that schema; adjust their behavior with their concept of gender

gender differences - aggression

aggression is one of the most consistently documented psychological gender differences; males are more aggressive than females

men tend to be more X oriented while women tend to be more X oriented

accomplishment, relationship