Social and Developmental

The long road towards social acceptance

Keeping ‘yourself’ on track

Play social roles - society creates and defines roles and individual seeks and adopts them

Self-knowledge - self-awareness, self-esteem, self-deception

Interpersonal self - public self, Relationship, social roles

Agent self - Executive function, decision making

Suggests that some situations lead to self-awareness. Self-aware people feel bad because they notice any discrepancies between who they are and their standards. They can either “shape up” by matching the behaviour to the standard or “ship out” by trying to escape the self-aware state.

Standard - concepts of how things might possibly be

Around age 2, we begin to use our standards

Private self-awareness - awareness of the private aspects of oneself. It can improve behaviour, makes us more moral, help us adhere to our attitudes rather than changing them

when self-awareness feels bad (act against values) => seek to escape (facing mirror or not)

Self regulation - self control and big advantage

Adopt the perspective of other people

Manage behaviour in pursuit of goals

Participants who were self-schematic on (in)dependence more quickly identified words associated with their schemas (like “assertive” or “cautious”)

More able to recall experiences that demonstrated their schema

Beneficial to a person’s health and well-being to have multiple self-identities (open to new experience, but aware of failure and frustration)

S.s. that are too extreme or well-partitioned can have negative effects

Quality vs Quantity of roles is important

A research method that requires participants to keep track of their daily activities

Nezlek and Plesko (2001) had over 100 participants complete the self-concept clarity scale developed by Campbell et al. (1996) twice a week for up

to 10 weeks

The limits of self-awareness/knowledge

Surprising inaccuracy of self judgement

Affective forecasting error

People may be wrong about the extent to which they have free will

People have vested interest in the self-concepts

Focus on people’s awareness of discrepancies between the actual self and their perceived and ought selves

Actual self - how a person sees the self at present time

Ideal self - how a person would like to see the self

Ought self - how a person thinks they ought to be

Psychological discomfort from discrepancies

Sadness/disappointment from discrepancies between actual and ideal self

Annoyance/frustration from discrepancies between actual and ought self

Self regulation: attempt to match behaviour with an ideal/ought standard of the self

People have 2 distinct regulatory systems

Promotion - approach orientated in constructing the self

Prevention - cautious and avoidant in doing so

Individual differences, mood and context can affect which system people take

Confronted with loss → prevention

Confronted with win → promotion

Promotion approach increases creativity

People test the self against public and private standards and change behaviour if there is a discrepancy - Cognitive feedback loop

Allows people to make improvements to the self through self-appraisal and self-regulation

But exerting self control can hamper performance on other tasks

Ego depletion: self-control and willpower are a finite resource that can be used up

Strength model of self-control: self-control cannot be maintained for an unlimited period of time

Upward social comparison: can have negative effect on self-esteem

Downward social comparison: positive effects on self-concept

Temporal comparisons: comparing oneself with a self from the past or with

an anticipated future self

People are able to maintain their self-esteem when making upward comparisons

But people don’t always adopt these strategies; sometimes people derive self-esteem from the achievements of close others

Influenced by upbringing, individual differences; but can change throughout the life span

Sources of self-esteem - emotions, self-schemas, flexibility (internal) and social acceptance (external)

Self esteem acts as an internal thermometer of social inclusion

Signs of exclusions → lowered self esteem and negative emotions

People change their behaviour to be included

Some base self-esteem on external factors (you are what u do). If based on larger range of factors self-esteem is likely to be higher, and vice versa (narrow = lower)

Mood regulation, protection from death, aggression (lower self esteem people are more prone to antisocial behaviour, but research also shows high self esteem is associated with aggression)

Narcissism

Impression management

Self-monitoring

Motives that drive strategic self-presentation

People should engage in positive self-presentations, reinforced by therapist. People should withhold info that undermines their positive impression.

Controversial, but good evidence that self-disclosures are sometimes

detrimental to recovery

Wanting to belong - need to bring colours out thinking & emotions

Social acceptance - sense of belonging increases self-esteem and social segregation decreases it

Maintaining relationships - resist breaking social bonds, even bad ones

Ostracism - social exclusions leads to demoralization, depression and sometimes nasty behaviour

The need to affiliate or better the NBT

People tend to be attracted to others who are the same level of physical attractiveness as themselves

They compensate or make up for their looks to make themselves attractive in other ways

What “assets” can a person bring

Asked 300 MIT dorm residents to list closest friends and looked where listed friends lived with dorm

One door away - 41% chance being listed as a close friend and as number of doors increased chances decreased

If initial reaction is negative, repeated exposure will decrease likely (“Social Allergy”)

If initial exposure is positive, repeated exposure will likely increase

Proximity can sometimes lead to hostility

Dutton and Aron (1974) - male participants completed a questionnaire, asked to cross a shaky or stable bridge to pass it to the experimenter (M or F). DV - whether the participants called the experimented with further queries about the study

Arousal felt by crossing the shaky bridge was transferred to the female → more attraction. When the arousal caused by 1 stimulus is added to the arousal of another.

The overall arousal is misattributed to the 2nd stimulus

Galton (1870/1952) - Wives’ and husbands’ attitudes are more similar than would occur by chance

Newcomb (1956, 1961) - University students rated the attractiveness of their peers . Peers with similar attitudes and values were rated more attractive

Byrne’s (1971) law of attraction - Attraction is directly and linearly related to the proportion of attitudes shared

Balance theory - People compare their attitudes with others and reach balance if there is similarity. Balance enhances positive feeling and attraction. Attitude dissimilarity causes imbalance

The rewards they gain from the relationship

The costs they incur from the relationship

The relationship they deserve and the likelihood they could have a better relationship with someone else

Griffit (1970) - students evaluated a person whilst sitting in a pleasant comfortable room or an unpleasant hot room. Person rated more positively if participants were in the nice room

Passionate love - intense feelings, uncontrollable thoughts, deep longing, physiological symptoms, feeling of being in love, bio components (release of dopamine and activates the brain reward system)

Companionate love - Deep, secure feelings, unfrenzied, common in relationships that were once passionate

Passion - emotional state with high bodily arousal

Intimacy - feelings of closeness, mutual understanding and concern

Commitment - conscious decision, remains constant

2 wired monkeys with different heads (wire or cloth) with 8 infant monkeys. 4 monkeys had milk from the cloth monkey and the rest with the wire monkey.

Infant attachment to ‘mother’ was influenced by contact comfort (cloth preferred to wire) than the provisions of food (milk)

Harlow found the strong attachment doesn’t necessarily have to be with the biological mother

Commitment is the wish or intention to stay in a relationship

Rusbult’s (1983) investment model of commitment

Affect - emotional reaction

Behaviour - behavioural tendencies

Cognition - beliefs

Criticisms

Only defines behaviour as inherent part of attitude

Does not look at how behaviour is related to how people think and feel about attitude objects

People do not always behave in a way that in accordance with their attitudes (e.g., religious beliefs vs actual behaviour)

Knowledge function - Attitudes function as schemas to help us make sense of information in a complex social world. Help people focus on the important characteristics of an attitude object so they know how to deal with it quickly and effectively

Utilitarian function - Attitudes can help us obtain rewards and avoid punishment

Value expression function - Attitudes may allow people to express their deep-seated values

Ego defensive function - Attitudes can protect us from psychological threats

Classical conditioning - Associate something we initially do not fear (neural stimulus with something that already triggers a fear response (UCS)). Watson and Rayner (1920) ‘Little Albert) created a phobia. Played with a white rat; whenever the rat presented made a loud noise.

Instrumental conditioning: A form of learning whereby a behaviour followed by a positive response is more likely to be repeated

(Rat (NS) - No response → Loud noise (UCS) - fear response (UCR) → Loud noise + White rat (UCS+NS) - Fear response (UCR) → White rat (CS) - Fear response (CR)

Bandura - Separate doc

Innate factors - Genetic factors play a role in attitude development (twin studies), diverse attitudes tend to be organised by political conservatism which seems ti be heritable. Attitudes determined by genetics are harder to change and more important to people

Attitude consistency and balance - balance when attitudes are consistent with each other. If we have a positive attitude to an object we will form positive attitudes to objects related. If unbalances attitudes are more likely to change

Social representation - beliefs about the social world are formed through processes of social interaction. Attitudes are formed by groups/culture and are built by social and cultural practices

quick and inexpensive

can be used online as well

but rely on honesty (can have social desirability effect)

Can show actual behaviour in real life situations

Involves large amount of effort

Can be complicated ethically

Then told that the device can detect people’s true attitudes

Assumption - they are afraid that the machine can detects dishonest answers so they try to be more truthful

allows to examine subtle facial movements that may not be visible to the naked eye

Tracks electrical activation in muscle responsible for facial expressions

Participants sat behind computer and asked to press different key to match concept during a series of trials

In theory: tests people’s implicit preferences for some classes of stimuli over others

But several criticisms, e.g., said to be better measure of attitudes individuals have been exposed to rather than the extent of how much they endorse those themselves

Implicit evaluations are the outcomes of associative processes

Explicit evaluations represent the outcome of propositional processes

Associative processes = activation of mental associations on basis of feature similarity and spatiotemporal contiguity

Propositional processes = validation of activated information based on logical consistency

Evidence - Gawronksi et al (2008)

Travelled around USA with Chinese couple; calling at 184 restaurants and 66 hotels after their visits there. The couple was always served courteously. However, after the study, the establishments were contacted and 92% said they would not serve Chinese visitors

Attitudes may not always predict behaviours - Attitude-behaviour link is predicted by a variety of factors:

Situational factors - either constrain or facilitate the expression of attitudes

Attitudinal factors - Attitude strength; the stronger the attitude, the more likely it will influence behaviour, Level of specificity; If specificity of attitude & behaviour are closely matched then attitude is more likely to affect behaviour

Values and ideology - priming values influences people’s behaviour, so it becomes more aligned with their values

Habits and individual difference - Bem and Allen (1974)

Theory of planned behaviour - several factors attitudes towards the behaviour and perceived behavioural control, determine behavioural intentions concerning the behaviour and in turn intentions strongly determine whether the behaviour is performed

Theory of reasoned reaction - predecessor to theory of planned behaviour, didn’t take perceived behaviour control into account

Did repetitive and boring tasks and had top lie to next participant that the task was enjoyable for payments of $1 or $20.

Agreeing to describe task as enjoyable to someone else creates C.D.; to resolve this inconsistency

Strack et al (1988) - participants watched funny cartoons while holding pen between lips and teeth. Holding a pen between teeth facilitates contraction of zygomaticus (e.g. smiling muscle). Holding between the lips inhibits contraction of this muscle. Result - participants in teeth condition rated cartoons as funnier

Strack et al. (1988): Facial feedback hypothesis - One explanation for this finding: self-perception theory (Bem, 1970). We cannot (always or fully) access our own attitudes, so infer them by observing our own behaviour. Much as we do for others

Some unsuccessful replication attempts (e.g., Wagenmakers et al., 2016 – 17 independent replications from labs around the world of Strack et al.’s Study 1 failed to find any support for the effect)

Meta-analysis: Overall effect of facial feedback significant but small (Coles et al., 2019)

Systematic processing occurs when targets actively scan and process the argument put forward in a message. Heuristic processing occurs when people don’t carefully consider arguments, but resort to cognitive short cuts. Easier to apply a simple rule to make a quick judgement about something rather than to weigh up all the pros and cons

Variation in persuasion depend on the likelihood that participants will engage in elaboration of (thinking about) the argument relevant to it

When people think carefully about a message they are attending to its central cues and have been persuaded via the central route

When people are persuaded by the more superficial aspects of a message they are attending to its peripheral cues and have been persuaded via the peripheral route

Evidence - ability to process → distraction decreases ability to generate counterarguments. Makes people more persuaded by peripheral cues and weak arguments

Evidence - motivation to process → as involvement in a topic increases, motivation to engage in central/systematic processing increases. This can be affected by individual differences and situation dependent

Eagly and Chaiken (1975) - conventionally attractive v unattractive campaigning for petition signatures. Attractive - 41%, Not - 32%.

People who (think they) are attractive expect to be more persuasive - especially with unmotivated audience. They also seek out more face to face contact with low motivation audiences - they implicitly understand the power of peripheral cues

Liked persuaders are more effective, but only irl, distracts us from the message and towards the characteristics of the source.

Ingratiation is therefore quite an effective Strat as long as you aren’t too obvious

Similarity with your audience makes you more persuasive (shared ingroup identity and mimicry)

Making a large unrealistic request before making a smaller, more realistic request that is likely to be successful

Ciandini et al (1975)

Only works if the same person makes both requests

The influencer offers a buyer something at a high price (e.g., expensive TV)

They wait for a while… buyer likely to say no

They then offer the buyer an incentive (e.g., cheaper TV or free Sky)

The consumer feels that they owe the influencer something because they were generous

The consumer makes the purchase

The influencer asks for a small favour which is almost universally granted (e.g., “can I borrow a bike helmet?”)

They then ask for a larger, related favour (e.g., “can I also borrow the bike?)

Since the person is already committed (i.e., they granted the small request), they are more likely to grant the large request

Influencer suddenly adds unattractive conditions to something after the person has agreed to do it (e.g., hidden costs)

Since the person is already committed, they are more likely to comply with the nasty surprise

Truth effect - statements seem more true when repeated - up to a point. Related to ‘mere exposure effect’ in attitudes and impression formation

Boomerang effect - threats to personal freedom leading to defiant responses

Participants thought of more supporting arguments when exposed to a message that was consistent with their pre-existing attitudes. Those exposed to a message with inconsistencies with their attitudes thought of more opposing arguments

‘Hurt’ - can be physical, social, emotional, cultural

John - Human nature is gentle; agriculture, tech,m urbanisation fuel violence

Hobbes - Human nature is basically vicious; it’s curbed by modern society

based on Darwin, we can expect within-species aggression to be more common among terminal and social species. Which is supported by Gomez et al (2016), which findings support the idea that human nature is to be aggressive

According to Steven Pinker, we are currently in the least violent period in history, this argument is superficially consistent with Hobbe’s view that civilisation is curbing our worst instinct

Human aggression is inevitable, caused by biological programmed hormonally regulated build-up of aggressive energy that needs to find a release

People whose aggressive energy has built up will go out and find ways to aggress

Class 3 foxes – wild, will show fear, bite

Class 2 foxes – will be petted and handled but not friendliness

Class 1 foxes – show friendliness

Class 1E foxes – ‘elite’ foxes friendly, seek out human contact

Cause and effect? – Twin studies are essentially correlational

Potential confound: Genetic similarities tend to go hand in hand with environmental similarities (e.g., Ramirez, 2003)

MZ twins’ aggression is not especially similar in the lab (Miles & Carey, 1997)

Gene related to depression

Low levels of serotonin associated with increased levels of aggression

Variations in levels in the brain have linked to increased aggression and delinquency rates in teenagers and adolescents (Guo et al 2008)

Delgado’s (1967)

Delgado’s (1963)

Chronically high testo. individuals may be more aggressive, report feeling more restless and tense, more likely to be in prison for unprovoked violent crimes, but null experimental findings

It appears to suppress aggression

Depressed serotonin function associated with increased levels of aggression

Low in depressed individuals, low in low socio economic groups and subdominant animals

Berman et al (2009) - participants who had taken paroxetine less likely to administer severest possible shock to confederate who had shocked them with increasing intensity

Preferred by people who are violent sober, so more likely when intoxicated.

]50% or offenders in rape and violent crimes have alcohol in blood stream, and 65% in murderers and victims

It reduces self-awareness and interacts with testosterone

Compared to N, S after presented array of aggressive responses, cognitive and physiological precursors to aggression (increase in testosterone, cortisol, wrote more aggressive stories

Responses to motor vehicle condition were the same across the USA

But in S&W responses to manslaughter condition were different to N

The individual anticipated that they would feel satisfied when they achieved the goal that was eventually frustrated

The frustration is total, so that all hope of achieving that goal is lost

The individual is frustrated more than once

The individual was frustrated when they had nearly achieved their goal

Anderson et al (1997) - predicted increases in temp due to global warming could result in more than 100,000 additional serious assault per year in USA alone by 2050

Aversive conditions will trigger aggression when they make people angry

Anger associated with aggression in people’s minds

Form of automatic social cognition

Aggression can be seen as a script

Berkowitz ad LePage (1967) - presence of a gun in a room can increase aggression

Berkowitz (1973) - Boys shown violent ice hockey game where players were wearing toy radios. Boy more aggressive when similar radios were in the sae room. Object appeared to cue possibility of violence similar to the clip.

Gerbner et al (1977) - mass consumption of mass media results in mean world syndrome. This paranoia can make crime more likely as law-abiding citizens withdraw from public spaces become less engaged in society

Desensitisation - reductions in negative emotions to violence that ensue from repeated exposure to violent stimuli

Negative emotions help deter people from aggression, desensitization can lead to increased levels of aggression (Bandura 1978).

But exposure to violence films and video games reduces physiological responses to IRL violence

Cardiff hospital admissions increase after games at Millennium stadium - especially after the home team wins

Domestic violence calls to police and admission of women spike after super bowl finals

Frustration-aggression: More aggression after your team has won or lost Answer: After they have lost – losing is the frustration that leads to aggression Social-learning: More aggression after your team has won or lost?

Answer: After they have won – watching your team win amounts to watching it being rewarded for aggression

Rape and domestic violence can be seen as ‘intergroup’ crimes

Committed much more often by men (e.g. Walby and Allen 2004)

Motivated in part by ideologies supporting power and dominance over women (e.g., Abrams et al., 2003)

Affect “all” women through fear (e.g., Brownmiller, 1975; Schwartz & Brand, 1983)

People are often violent to each other not because of what individual qualities but because of social identities

Intergroup violence 1 manifestation of prejudice

Mullen (1986) - archival study on lynchings - more people attended, more horrific the violence

Americans were shown either black or white faces. immediately afterwards presented an image of handgun or hand tool. Black faces tended to get faster at identified with the handgun. White faces were fasted identified with hand tool. This presents the weapons effects and is related to stereotypes

When angered by confederate, male uni students gave stronger shocks when in group than alone.

But being in a group and accountable can also reduce tendency to aggress as many types of aggression are covert and private.

Groups are not straightforwardly good or bad influences on individuals

Ingroup - groups we belong to

Outgroup - groups we don’t belong to

(Deaux et al 1995) - large or small, structured or unstructured, specific or general, physically close or scattered

Tajfel 1981 -

Brown 2000 -

Turner 1982 -

Entitativity

Intimacy groups

Task-oriented groups

Common bond groups – attachment among group members

Common identity groups – attachment to the group

Stages of group formation

Forming - acceptance, avoidance of controversy and conflict, working out structure and rules

Storming - addressing issues, conflict, conflict can be suppressed in interests of harmony

Norming - listening, support and flexibility, common identity and purpose

Performing - task orientation

Adjourning - task is complete and group disengages

Membership phases

Prospective member (investigation)

Marginal member - (socialisation)

Member (maintenance)

Marginal member (re-socialisation)

Ex-member (remembrance)

Moreland and McGinn (1999) - criticism of the group’s work (paintings) by a former member of the group vs non-member. The “remembrance” stage of socialisation

Gerard and Mathewson (1966) - if unpleasant task (electric shock) is perceived to be initiation, group is seen as more attractive than if perceived not to be. Participants who received severe shock rate group as much more attractive (result of cognitive dissonance)

formal or informal, regulate and guide behaviour, some are universal and some vary across cultures

Twenge (2001) - tracked women’s social status between 1931 and 1993. Compared this with their own rating of assertiveness. Pattern followed trends in women’s social status. Roles often related to status

Marques et al 1988 - Bad speeches were related as bad as when they came from an ingroup member

Subjective group dynamic model - Marques et al 2001

Threats to the perceived superiority of the ingroup. Ingroup members who flout norms of desirable behaviour are derogated

Jetten et al 2005 -

Schoemann and Branscombe 2011 -

Independence -

Affiliation, similarity and support -

Terror-management -

Need for social identity -

Optimal distinctiveness -

Conformity - people follow formal rules and regulation and sometimes a request to conform is explicit (compliance), changing behaviour and not beliefs

Obedience - people doing as they are told from authority figures

Acceptance - changing behaviour and beliefs

Aim - interested in the emergence of social norms

Method - Participants seated in dark and asked to observe a pinpoint of light (autokinetic effect), then it suddenly disappears. Participants (alone) asked to estimate how much it moved, later participants do the same thing, but this time they are given the estimates of 2 other participants in the study

Results - a group norm emerges over time, after 3 group phases, participants rely on the group norm when giving their responses individually

Ambiguous stimulus as it has an internal frame of reference. Differential judgements of others → frame of reference questioned and abandoned → joint frame of reference established

Jacobs and Campbell (1961) → same experiment but with 1 participant (+confederates), majority influenced the participant’s decisions → group norm persisted

Aim - conformity when answering a question which line is the same

Method - participant seated 6th in a row of 7 , presented with a diagram of standard line left and 3 comparisons and had to choose which line matched

Trial 1: everyone before the participant agrees on the same line, which is the correct one. The participant agrees

Trial 2: everyone again agrees on the correct line

Trial 3: all the confederates before the participant choose the wrong line. The participant knows it is the wrong line, but which one will they choose?

Results - control → 99% accuracy. Experimental condition → participants chose the correct line only 63% of the time

No oblivious pressure to comply (punishment or reward). If people so easily comply, what happens if they are actually coerced

Aim - explaining why people perform atrocities

Methods - participants is to teach another person a series of paired words and test memory. Punish errors via shocks and ‘learner’ (confederate) trained on how to response. Teacher samples mild shock and learner strapped to a chair with electrodes. The shock generator had 30 switches from 15 volts to 450 volts. The learner intentionally gave mainly wrong answers, meaning the teacher would have to administer the shock.

Findings - obedience decreased as shock level increased 100% low voltage around 63% of teachers went up and beyond 450V. in another condition where the ‘learner’ could not be seen or heard, but instead pounded on the wall at 300v, 315v (then went silent), 65% went to end

Proximity of experimenter - obedience fell more distant experiment is (21%). However

Proximity of learner - if teacher can’t seen or hear learner it was almost 100%

Group pressure -

Individual or task-related factors - difficult tasks, participants feel incompetent or insecure

Group-related factors - group size, Asch (1955) - groups of 3 to 5 elicit greater conformity than just 1 or 2 being presents. More than 5 makes no difference (Milgram, Bickman & Berkowitz 1969)

Milgram, Bickman & Berkowitz 1969 - the % of people conforming increases as the group size increases, but only up to a point

Asch 1955 - difficult to dissent if group is unanimous, if someone dissents, conformity occurs only ¼ as often

Status - higher-status people have more impact than lower-status people (Driskell & Mullen, 1990). Lower-status people are more likely to conform

People behave differently to avoid rejection or to obtain important info

Deutsch and Gerard (1955) names these factors and normative and informational influence

Normative - going along with the crowd, gain approval or avoid disapproval, people supress their disagreement, wanting to be liked and avoid dislike, “compliance”

Informational - leads people to acceptance or conversion, when task is ambiguous, others can be sources of info, desire to be correct, “acceptance”

Gender differences - not really (Eagly 1987). Milgram (1974) found that the same % of women obeyed as men

Individual differences - fairly weak connections (Mischel 1968), low self-esteem, high need for social support, low IQ, high anxiety, need for self-control → greater conformity

Culture - conformity - is greater in cultures where there are heavy sanctions for non-conformity. Individualistic cultures tend to be less likely to conform than collectivists. Markus and Kitayama (1991) says conformity is ‘social glue’

We don’t always conform to social pressures. We tend to do this when influence attempts are blatant (reactance - attempting to protect freedom, people assert uniqueness)

Unanimity - Allen (1975) using Asch paradigm replaced 1 of the confederates with a dissenter. Conformity of participants was drastically reduced (social support)

Individual sharing an isolation person’s viewpoint helps a participant resist influence.

Moscovici (1976) - influence of minorities can’t be accounted for by same principle that can explain majority influence. They are few and have less access to info and no control

Moscovici argues that minority impact lies in their own behavioural styles (clear and consistent)

Consistency has 2 components: Diachronic (intraindividual consistency and stability over time) and Synchronic (Interindividual consistency and within minority)

Majority influence - majority activates a social comparison process, participant compared their response to others, conform to normative response and ant private acceptance is short-lived

Minority influence - minority evokes a validation process - participant tries to understand the minority consistently holds to its position. Participant thinks more closely about issue, may become privately influenced. However, majority pressures may prevent the being shown publicly so we often get private acceptance, but not public compliance

Distributive justice - Are privileges, duties, and goods distributed in line with people’s merits or the best interest of society?

Procedural justice - Are the procedures that allocate resources and resolve disputes fair?

Benefits the individual - When they are treated fairly improves their wellbeing

Benefits the collective - society functions better if people treat each other fairly, motivated to pull their weight

Equity principle - you get what you give. Outcomes should be proportional to contribution → work hard, get more

Equality principle - we all get the same. Resources should be distributed equally regardless of merit

Need principle - you get what you need. Focus on what people need to survive and thrive

They seem universal across cultures, but their importance varies

In social relations, people want to max their benefits ad min their costs

Comparison level = expectation that benefits outweigh the cost of relationships (T&K 1959)

Higher C.L - expect benefits to greatly outweigh the costs

Lower C.L. - expect to just break even

If relations don’t line up with expectations dissatisfaction is likely to occur → motivation to make relationship more personally regarding or leave it

Costs: effort, money, time, low self-esteem, etc

Rewards: pleasure, satisfaction, financial aid, etc

Decision making process is not completely rational. Previous investment can prevent people from leaving under-rewarding relationships

The higher the investment, more attached you feel

In the condition where participant over-benefitted they were more satisfied under high cognitive load than under low cognitive load → recognising injustice against others seems to take cognitive effort

In the condition where they under-benefitted they were dissatisfied regardless of cognitive load → indicating that it doesn’t seem to take cognitive effort to recognise when you are being personally disadvantaged

Positive affect (Dalbert, 1999), Optimism (Littrell & Beck, 1999), Effective coping with stress (Tomaka & Blascovich, 1994), Better sleep (Jensen et al., 1998), Lower levels of depression (Ritter et al., 1990), Less loneliness (Jones et al., 2006)

Investment in long-term goals requires will pay off. Are people more motivated to believe in a just world when planning for the future

Participants wrote an essay about a) their plans for after graduation (long-term goal condition) or their curriculum (control condition)

Watched a distressing video about a woman contracting HIV a) out of bad luck or b) out of negligence

When the victim was innocent, participants blamed and derogated her more after long-term planning than after no planning

BJW (belief in just world) seem to aid long-term planning and goal pursuit

Female participants watched a woman who ostensibly received electric shocks in a learning experiment when she got the answer wrong

In the “reward” condition, participants were able to assign the ”victim” to a condition where she would receive money instead of shocks

In the “martyr” condition, participants were told that the victim was accepting the shocks so the other participants wouldn’t have to

When participants could help the victim, they did so and evaluated her less harshly

Harshest evaluation in the martyr condition: motivation to devalue the victim should be the highest (particularly threatening to JWB because something bad is happening to a good person)

Results indicate that when people feel helpless, they are more likely to victim blame victims

Refugees (Montada, 1998), Those in poverty (Furnham & Gunter, 1984), Those with mental illness (Johansson & Kunst, 2017), Those in unemployment (Reichle et al., 1998)

Just world beliefs predict the acceptance of rape myths (Russell & Hand 2017)

Rape myths - beliefs around sexual violence that aim to downplay or justify violence or victim blame

Improves wellbeing, increases negative attitudes towards some of the most vulnerable groups in society

dilemma can be resolved, researchers have distinguished between beliefs that the world is a just place for the self vs general

They are usually positively, but only moderately related. They are usually weaker related in privileged samples - here people believe more strongly in BJW-Self than BJW-others

Khera et al (2014) - N = 235 refugee practitioners

BJW-self correlated with lower stress and higher life satisfaction

BJW-others correlated with more negative attitudes towards refugees (when controlling for BJW-self)

Although BJW and BJW-others are positively related, they sometimes predict the same outcomes in opposite directions

Participants misremember a woman as less attractive than she actually is if they learn that she was the victim of a house fire (Callan, Powell, & Ellard, 2007)

After watching a justice-threatening video, participants misremember how much a lottery winner won if he is described as a bad person vs. a good person (Callan et al., 2009)

Those who are at the top deserve to be at the top

Those at the bottom are there because they don’t are not good enough

Group disadvantages (especially historical) do not matter

Individual worth is the only thing that matters

denial of inequality → Belief in system fairness → life satisfaction

States that people care about injustice not only because of the outcomes they expect to receive, but because it matters to their social identity. Being treated fairly signals that I have high status in groups I care about

Unfair treatment is threatening because it makes us unsure about our standing in the group

Specific version of helping, but doesn’t benefit the self, can be done at the expense of the self.

Part of prosocial behaviour - action that’s positively valued by society

1st experimental research of the bystander effect

Participants seated in room alone and communicated through intercom with other participants. Confederate pretended to have seizure, asked for help and then choked. Participants believed that the incident was witnessed by: them alone, 1 to 4 other participants

DV: whether an attempt to help was made

Willingness to help declined as number of bystanders increased. Longer hesitation as group size increased.

Latane and Darley (1968) - pumped smoke into room where participants completed questionnaires.

When alone 75% of participants reported smoke, 3 participants (38%). Participant and 2 passive confederates (10%)

When they have consumed alcohol (Steele et al 85), when they are with people they know or friends with (Rutkowski et al ‘83) or when they believe those around them are their in-group and willing to intervene (Levine et al 2002)

Individual difference for why some people are more likely to help. Extent to which willingness to help as a function of their own needs vs overarching moral standards (Eisenberg & Miller, ‘87).

Individuals who use higher level of reasoning to solve moral dilemmas generally show greater empathy and altruism

Miller et al (1996) - Children watched video of injured child, option to play with toys or organise toys to be send to hospital. More likely to choose latter option to the extent that they used higher levels of moral reasoning

People are more empathic and helpful to people who are similar to them (Miller et al 2001). E.g. similarity in dress, nationality, attitudes, breakup experience. Group membership important

Levine et al (2005) - ManU fans completed questionnaires, then walked to different part of building. Watched someone slip and fall. Confederate was wearing:

Manchester United jersey

Liverpool jersey (i.e., rival football team)

Generic shirt (control condition)

Did participants stop to help the confederate?

92% helped in the ManU jersey, 33% helped in the Liverpool jersey and 30% in the generic. → ingroup similarity important for willingness to help others

People draw on stereotypes to gain knowledge about people they barely know (Dijker & Koomen, 1996). People sometimes use stereotypes and sometimes they don’t:

Being outcome dependent on another person means that they use stereotypes less and cognitive resources more

Accuracy is more important (Stephan, Berscheid & Hatfield, 1971)

People were told they would be working with elderly people to earn a prize (or independently). Outcome dependent people ascribed less stereotypical traits

But only when not cognitively busy (Pendry & MacRae, 1994)

Stereotypes assume a correlation between group membership and individuals’ characteristics.

We are sensitive to distinctive events, so when two distinctive events occur together, it is especially noticeable.

Typically, we have less contact with minorities and outgroups and therefore commit a crucial cognitive error…

Majority and minority group equally prone to an undesirable behaviour.

“Trick of the mind” leads people to believe that the behaviour is more common among the minority (Fiedler, 2004)

Can explain why some behaviours are unfairly perceived as more characteristic of minority groups

Even if there is a “kernel of truth” (McGarty et al., 1993)

How can we explain this?

Memory is faulty so people do not accurately encode the ratios, and estimates become biased (Fiedler, 1991)

Mainly in favour of majority because memory for the minority is weaker to begin with

People are more accurate at accessing common events (Rothbart, 1981)

People process unfamiliar information more elaborately (Hamilton & Gifford, 1976)

A little knowledge about a group can be a dangerous thing.

Beliefs about differences but also the appropriateness of the differences

Hostile sexism - Women pose a threat to men’s position

Benevolent sexism - Women are wonderful, and necessary for men’s happiness

Attitudes toward women are therefore ambivalent (Glick & Fiske, 1996)

Older people face many forms of prejudice (Age Concern, 2006)

This is bad for you (Levy et al., 2009)

People completed an ageism scale. 25% of people who endorsed ageist stereotypes had a cardiovascular event within 30 years (compared to 13%)

As late as 1973, homosexuality was considered a psychiatric disorder. Civil Partnership Act (2004) met by public opposition (86%) in a consultation document. Associated with traditional religious views and endorsement of traditional gender roles

When abilities and traits develop

Underlying mechanisms that underpin emergence of them

Continuous experiences or Succession of changes

Domain-specific or General development

Nature or Empiricists (Nurture)

Constructivism, Schemas, Equilibrium and Disequilibrium, Adaption, Assimilation and accommodation

Importance of physical and social world as an individual

4 stages of cognitive development, characterised by a qualitatively different mode of thinking. Stages occur in a fixed sequence never skipped and are domain general

Sensorimotor - infant understands the world through senses and actions

Pre-operational – child understands the world through symbols

Concrete operational – child understands the world through logical thinking

Formal operational – adolescent/adult understands the world through abstract thinking and scientific reasoning

Complex and comprehensive theory

Emphasis on active role of child was revolutionary

Introduced countless new concepts and research methods

Considerable continuity between Piaget’s ideas and modern cognitive developmental psychology

Many of Piaget’s methods were overly complex

Although he got what develops right much of the time, he got when it develops wrong in many cases

Underestimated the role of cultural and social influences, and formal education on cognition

Social constructivism, Elementary and higher cognitive functions, Social origins of higher cognitive functions, Internalisation

Language as a tool for thought = social speech → private speech → inner speech, Zone of proximal development

Importance of culture, informal social interaction and formal schooling

Helps explain cultural variations, Implications for education

Says little about biological influences, Does not fully explain how processes are internalised, Minimises contributions of the individual

Both theories are genuinely developmental

Both consider constructive processes to be essential

Both emphasize importance of qualitative changes

Both recognise social influences on development

Both theories are domain-general

Types of developmental process

Relative importance of adult and peer influences

The influence of culture on cognitive development

The relation between language and thought

Vygotsky - Development involves the internalisation of processes that originally occurred between individuals

Piaget - development occurs as the result of processes within the individual

Vygotsky - adults (or older children) have a greater influence than peers; children learn most when working within their zone of proximal development

Piaget - peers have a greater influence than adults on cognitive development; disagreements with peers cause ‘sociocognitive conflict’ which motivates change

Evidence - Ames and Murray (1982): 6- and 7-year-olds who had failed pre-test conservation tasks

Vygotsky - culture has a massive influence on cognitive development

Piaget - culture has minimal influence on cognitive development

Evidence

Children in (some) non-Western cultures consistently perform differently on Piagetian tasks (e.g., Dasen, 1977)

Mexican children, from pottery-making families, pass conservation tasks earlier than European children (Price-Williams, Gordon, & Ramirez, 1969)

Vygotsky - language is critical for cognitive development

Piaget - cognitive development is largely independent of language

Evidence of the importance of self-talk

Balamore and Wozniak (1984) found that 3- and 4-year-olds performed better when they used private speech

Start with an idea - read existing research, observe and reflect, think about what interests you, identify problems with the world

Gain knowledge of the literature - read literature surrounding the topic of interest

Translate your research question into an experimental - common adult methods may not work for kids. There may be some limitations, so there has to be some adjustments.

Making faces - infants can sort of control their facial expression and providing stimuli encourages them.

Non-nutritive sucking - infants control their rate of sucking on pacifier, with link rate of sucking to stimuli (high-amplitude sucking is a common used measure)

Infant looking behaviour - following - they can control their gaze towards stimulus. boredom - habituation and dishabituation paradigm. preference - preferential looking paradigm (look at what they prefer). surprise - violation of expectation paradigm (babies look at unexpected things), 1st look

Older kids can do things toddlers can’t like imitation, communication, more motor ability

Suitability to the task, question, language (like maths), suitability to test environment (location) and test situation

Longitudinal: Several observations of the same participants over a period of time

Cross-sectional: Observations of different age groups done at same point in time

Participants must consent freely throughout and have adequate info. Must have capacity to consent (under-16s and Mental capacity act), must be free from coercion, able to withdraw or modify consent

Warm-up area: toys, child-friendly, Consent forms for parents, Child-friendly explanation, Friendly but neutral approach, How are you going to record data?, Provide breaks if session is lengthy, Debriefing, Provide payment;gift to child;family

Acts to maintain: nurturance, protection and security (physical and psycho)

Behaviours - crying, smiling, clinging. Allows for balance between exploration and safety - “safe bas

e” from which to explore.

Psychoanalytic Ideas - importance of early childhood experiences

Evolutionary Psychology - (psychological adaptations) Need for survival

Comparative Psychology - Harlow’s studies of Rhesus monkeys

Ethology - Imprinting in birds (Lorenz)

Maternal deprivation hypothesis

Asocial stage (0-6 weeks) - very young infants are asocial in the many kinds of stimuli (social and non-social) produce a favourable response; e.g. a smile.

Indiscriminate stage (2 - 7 months) - infants indiscriminately enjoy human company, and most babies respond equally to any caregiver; get upset when an individual ceases to interact with them. From 3 months infants smile more at familiar faces and can be easily comfortable by a regular caregiver.

Specific attachment (7 - 9 months or 2 years) - Special preference for a single attachment figure. They look to particular people for security/comfort/protection. It shows fear of strangers and unhappiness when separated from a special person. Some babies show stranger fear and separation anxiety much more frequently and intensely than others, but they are seen as evidence that the baby has formed an attachment. This has usually developed by one year of age.

Multiple attachments (10 months onwards) - The baby becomes increasingly independent and forms several attachments. By 18 months the majority of infants have formed multiple attachments (31% had 5+ attachments). The study’s results indicate that attachments were most likely to form with those who responded accurately to the baby’s signal, not just most time together. Intensely attached infants had mothers who responded quickly to their demands and interacted with their children. Infants who were weakly attached had mothers who failed to interact.

Loss of emotional care over a period of time. Separation without adequate substitute care. This includes the presence of a caregiver who cannot provide appropriate emotional care.

There is a critical period in which imprinting is only possible in the first few hours after birth/hatching. Imprinting is irreversible. Lorenz split a large clutch of greylag goose eggs into 2 groups. One was allowed to hatch normally and the goslings followed their mother around. Lorenz had the 2nd group of eggs incubated and then arranged it so that he was the first thing the goslings saw when they hatched. Even when the goslings were introduced to their biological mother they refused to leave Lorenz’s side. This shows that there is a critical period and imprinting is irreversible.

2 wired monkeys with different heads (one wire or cloth) with 8 infant monkeys. 4 monkeys had milk from the cloth monkey and the rest with the wire monkey.

Infant attachment to ‘mother’ was influenced by contact comfort (cloth preferred to wire) than the provisions of food (milk). Harlow found the strong attachment doesn’t necessarily have to be with the biological mother

Critical period → Sensitive Period, Bowlby worked primarily with traumatised children, not controls. No account for infant temperament. Cultural variation. Maternal Deprivation Hypothesis. Not just the mother

Separation anxiety - how the child reacts when mother leaves

Stranger anxiety - how the child reacts to being alone with a stranger

Reunion behaviour - how the child behaves when the mother returns

Low ecological validity, Does not identify general attachment style, Relationships differ (between people and at different times), Based on 100 middle class families, Only done in western cultures (ignores eastern)

Children in day-care: early research found higher proportion classified as insecurely attached.

Preschool attachment classification system (PACS)

Attachment Q-sort

A model of others as being trustworthy,

A model of the self as valuable

A model of the self as effective when interacting with others.

Secure: Mum is often available, will return to me after separation. I am lovable, worthy, and effective. Others are available, interested, and responsive.

Insecure-Avoidant: Mum is rejecting; I don’t expect much on reunion. I have to be self-reliant, and emotionally strong. Others are only conditionally available, might be rejecting, hostile, punishing. I don’t feel safe with others and don’t like being dependent on them.

Insecure-Resistant: Mum is cold. I’m unloved, ineffective. Others are unavailable, unreliable, disinterested.

Disorganised: No coherent IWM

Secure - secure attachment at 12 months predicts good social skills at 6 years. Infants more likely to become - socially skilled, empathic, intellectually curious, compliant, good problem solvers, self-directed

Insecure - (anxious) boys have more depression and social withdrawal at 6 years. Less harmonious friendships at 4 years, disorganised children rated by teachers and disruptive, impulsive or aggressive at 7. Adolescent (particularly girls) have higher risks of anxiety, depression and loneliness. Avoidant adolescent report less social support and earlier and risker sexual experiences

Secure: consistently responsive Read baby’s signals; respond quickly; coordination

Resistant: inconsistent Sometimes respond; anxious; depressed

Avoidant: dismissive, cold or rejecting

Disorganized: Frightening, insensitive, disturbances in emotional communication

Temperament is attribute of individual. Attachment is attribute of relationship. Some correlation between the 2. BUT irritable infants can form secure attachments

Measures by adult attachment interview. Discuss childhood experiences and relationships. Strongly related to child’s attachment security

Dismissive - Dismisses the significance of (or denies or claims to forget the existence of) early experiences. Recalls events with little detail and emotion. Acknowledges the importance of relationships in past and present → insecure-avoidant

Autonomous - Talks frankly and in detail about both positive and negative experiences. Shows insights into others’ motives and feelings → Secure

Preoccupied - Remembers experiences in a lengthy, unstructured way often with repetitions. Talks emotionally about events as if overwhelmed→ insecure-resistant

Unresolved - Failed to organised mental life after a traumatic past→ disorganised

Two symbols: 1 = v and 10 = <

Therefore, 25 = <<vvvvv

No concept of 0 as placeholder.

Therefore, 205 = <<vvvvv

Procedural knowledge: the ability to carry out a sequence of actions to solve a problem.​

Conceptual knowledge: the ability to understand the principles that underpin the problem.​​

Utilisation knowledge: the ability to know when to apply particular procedures.

quantity comparison,

counting,

number identification and more

visuo-spatial skills,

language skills

Counting them all (from 1 up)

Counting from the larger number - Groen and Resnick (1977): Children do not need to be explicitly taught to ‘count on’ (i.e. count up from 9 when adding 9 + 3)

Decomposition - breaking down the math equation

Retrieval - more often the child solves the answer to a problem correctly, more often they can recall it directly from memory

Performance doesn’t just depend on the cognitive difficulty of the task. Along with other important factors like social context and presentation of the problem

Arithmetic task​ → Oral: “How much do 4 coconuts cost at 35 Cruzeiros per coconut?” (98%), Written in words (74%), Written as computational exercises: “35 x 4 = ?” (37%)

Education implications → contextualising maths problems, gradually abstracting away

Remember that conceptual understanding should promote generalization​​

Maybe not, but then performance ≠ competence

Varying degrees of abstraction in symbols educators choose

Contrary to common expectations concrete symbols often don’t support learning

Evidence for a relationship between language proficiency and math ability.

Fazio (1999) - Compared to age-matched peers, 4th and 5th grade children with developmental language disorder had: Low scores on a number recall task, Difficulty with timed mathematical calculation​, Errors retrieving rote math facts such as 7 x 6= __

Phonological awareness, Alphabet knowledge, Print conventions, Building a vocabulary, Listening comprehension

Tap out syllables, break a syllable down, preschoolers struggle with these abilities (most 6yo succeed)

Correlates with later reading achievement → children’s level of phonological awareness before they can read predicts reading ability (9-10 yr)

Also causes later reading achievements → 4-5 yr who received phonological awareness training were better readers (+spellers) than control group for at least 4 yr post training (Bradley & Bryant, 1983; Byrne & Fielding-Barnsley, 1995)

Can we foster it → reciting nursery rhymes, Words games focused on rhyming and alliteration, Learning the alphabet.

Support: knowledge of nursery rhymes by 3-year-olds is positively correlated with their later phonological awareness (even when their IQ and the educational level of their mothers is factored out) (Maclean, Bryant & Bradley, 1987).

Positive correlation between early master of letter names and reading achievement through the (US) 7th grade

Not causal: training alphabet knowledge doesn’t lead to improved reading achievement later on (Adam, 1990)

Knowing how to hold a book, being able to identify text, identifying environmental print, family literacy practices

As vocab size increases phonological systems improve. Larger vocab makes it easier for children to grasp the content of what they read, reading helps this and reading and word learning both rely on similar skills

Written language is usually decontextualised (not always for spoken language). Skill with oral language and listening comprehension supports literacy

Decoding → translating printed symbols into words

Comprehension → deriving meaning from language

Phonological recoding → visual form is decoded into phonological form (meaning then accessed on the basis of this)

Visually-based retrieval → word meaning is accessed directly from the visual form (“sight vocab”)

Initially rely primarily on phonological recoding. With more practice, the start to rely more on visually based retrieval. From early on children choose adaptively between the 2 strategies; choosing the fastest approach that is likely to be correct

As children becomes better at phonological recoding strats, the better able s/he is at using the (faster) visually-based strategy.​

With practice, strength of the association between that word’s visual form and the meaning increases. ​​

Lessons which emphasise phonological recoding strategies lead to children being able to identify words more quickly and more accurately (e.g. Adams, Treiman, & Pressley, 1998).

Important to foster children’s interest in reading. Current research clearly shows that phonics instruction is critical for most children

Some children have poor text comprehension despite good working reading skills. Could reflect ineffective working memory, general knowledge and attention (Oakhill, Cain & Bryant, 2003; Currie & Cain, 2015).

Influences → amount of reading, amount their parents talk to them (particularly abstract language), amount parents read to them

Pre-schoolers make marks that look vaguely like conventional letters and are arranged in a linear horizontal sequence. Indicate an understanding that → words require separate symbols and meaning in reflected in print

Children understand the symbolic nature of written words later than pictures, but still well before they learn to read (Allen et al., 2014; Apperly et al., 2004)

For over a million years, human species lived close to the earth and became attuned to the earth, its climate and cycles

People evolved to derive the benefit of close touch and connection to other people's bodies, the earth and the smells, sounds and tastes of the natural world

Humans perceived no differences between the self and the world in a similar way to how children see others as an extension of themselves

Our sensory systems have evolved over billions of year

Each species possesses specialised sensory systems that have been selected

Remember that our sensory systems evolved for a hunter-gatherer lifestyle

William James (1890) - “the baby, assailed by eyes, ears, nose, skin and entrails at once, feels it all as one great blooming, buzzing confusion”

Hebb (1949) and Piaget (1953,1954) both argued that infant perception is highly impoverished at birth

Piaget said infants could perceive light, but no complex forms – develops slowly

Constructivist approach

Gibson (1950, 1966, 1979) argued that perceptual systems have evolved

Haith & Benson (1998) - We are born with greater capacities for perceiving and acting in the world than observation of behaviour suggests: “precocious infant”

Nativist approach

Origin of bio structures can be understood in terms of phylogeny and ontogeny

Phylogeny concerns the evolutionary origins of a species

Ontogeny concerns the developmental lifespan of a single organism

Nature v Nurture

Extreme viewpoints would argue that

Majority of information required to build a brain exists within the genes

Development of the mind comes from the external world

Does nature interact with nurture → interactionist approach

Pre birth the brain of the prenatal baby can support basic sensory and motor function. Between 10-26 weeks post-conception the rate of brain growth is approx 250,000 cells a minute (Cowan 1979). The cerebral cortex contain around 10 billion neurons and each contains multiple connection with other neurons

Cerebral cortex is divided into 2 hemispheres with 4 lobes: Occipital: Vision, Temporal: Hearing, speech, Parietal: Spatial perception, Frontal: Motor control

Receive info about environment through our sensory system, all sensory processes are functioning at birth, but their development is heterochronous

Asking questions without language….

Numerous ways to assess preference and learning in the neonate and infant

Habituation / dishabituation (Pacifier sucking rates, looking times)

Preferences (looking / head turning)

Infant is taught to turn their head in the direction of a sound whenever there is a change in stimulus

A correct head-turn results in visual reinforcement from the direction of the audio speaker

Popular myth that the human eye never grows (This is not true!)

The eye and brain increases 3-4 times in volume

Our body (on average) increases around 21 times in volume

Relatively, the eyes and brain are well developed at birth

Accommodation describes the changes in lens shape that change focus

Neonates focus at 30cm regardless of object distance (Turner, Horwood, Houston, & Riddell, 2002)

Promotes attention to important stimuli (i.e. mother’s face and breast) and limits distraction to other objects

Visual system is anatomically present at birth, but not mature, Cornea, lens and retina are immature and coordinated eye movement is not possible, Nearsighted: ‘blurry’, Good enough to see their mother’s face from 30cm

Pioneering work of Robert L. Fantz (1960’s)

Findings challenged the notion that neonates could only perceive light

Simple procedure: presented different visual forms

Neonates preferentially looked towards, faces, then complex patterns followed by plain stimuli

Vision is our dominant sense but audition is important too, unlike eyes our ears never close. We don’t have to orient our ears in direction of sensory input. Sound waves permeate the womb making in utero learning possible

Vibrating objects move air molecules that surround them, which in turn move adjacent molecules

The resulting areas of compression and rarefaction are transmitted as sound waves

We perceive waves with frequencies between 20 Hz and 20,000 Hz (dropping to around 16k Hz in adulthood

Auditory function is present at 19 weeks post-conception (Hepper & Shahidullah, 1994)

Pre- and postnatal auditory environments are very different

Prenatally, amniotic fluid in the ear canal attenuates auditory response

Fetal hearing occurs via bone conduction

Prior to birth the prenatal infant is most responsive to low-frequency sounds

Following birth, airborne soundwaves become accessible to the newborn

Consequently, the newborn can respond to higher-frequency sounds

The newborn also has access to time and amplitude differences between the 2 ears that help localise sounds

Functional at birth and respond to sound

Neonate: prefers the sound of speech to other sounds (Werker & Tees, 1999) and recognise their mother’s voice

2 days: prefer their own-language to foreign languages (Moon et al., 1993)

2 months: Distinguish basic components of language called phonemes (Eimas, 1985)

Facial expressions help to reveal infants are sensitive to diff tastes, relax muscles when sweet and purse lips when sour (Steiner ‘79). Important mechanism for survival milk sweet, bitter toxic

Newborns can learn to liken a taste that provided a pos or neg response

In many mammals, olfaction is an extremely important sense

It helps mothers and babies recognise each other, identify edible foods and known pathways

Less developed in humans but still plays an important role in helping babies to detect food source – lactating mother

Preferences for odours are also present at birth

Smell of chocolate or banana causes a relaxed facial expression

Smell of rotten foods makes the infant frown (Steiner, 1979)

During pregnancy, the smell and taste of the amniotic fluid is influenced by the mother’s diet

At birth, infants will preferentially orient towards their mother’s amniotic fluid relative to a stranger’s fluid (Marlier, Schall, & Soussignan, 1998)

Touch represents a fundamental means of interaction between mother and baby

Help to build bond between parents and baby

Touch is well developed at birth, particularly the mouth, palms and soles of the feet

Infants respond positively to touch, it can induce smiles and attention (Stack & Muir, 1992)

Newborns habituate to objects held in their hand (Streri, Lhote, & Dutilleul, 2000)

The neonate is born with a number of different reflexes: Blinking, Babinski, Grabbing, Rooting, Sucking

Reflexes serve different purposes

Eye-blink: Protection

Rooting & Sucking: Nursing

Stepping & Crawling: early components of locomotion

Moro & Grasping: Likely to have been functional in earlier stages of evolution. Used for gripping the mother

Most reflexes disappear by 6 months of age, only the eye blink remains throughout the lifespan. Reflexes are phased out as behaviour becomes controlled voluntarily due to the development of the cerebral cortex

It is important to test reflexes in infancy: Absent or weak reflexes can inform about central nervous system function and Persistence of reflexes can indicate damage to the cerebral cortex

Hold head upright (6 weeks). lift self by arms from prone position (2 months), sit alone (7 months), crawl (7 months), Pull to stand (8 months), stand alone (11 months) and walk alone (11-12 months)

Grasp cube (3 months), dexterous grasping (9 months), tower building (11 months)

Knowledge, Customs, Beliefs, Art, Law, Traditions, Morals / values, Memes

Collective products or ideas that exist as a unit and define a particular social group at a particular time - dynamic, Culture is transmitted across generations

East v West contrast, at presents aspects of these cultures are very different

East - regarded as ‘collectivist’ with emphasis placed on importance of the group over individual

West - regarded as ‘individualist’ where pursuit of individual or personal goals are encouraged

Farming in West: Greece → individuals farms in countries like Greece allowed farmers to support their families

Farming in East: China → irrigation was difficult - people had to work together to feed their communities

Philosophy in West → e.g. Aristotle focused his explanation of the world on objects

Philosophy in East → e.g. Chinese saw that actions occured in a field of forces, allowing them to understand concepts like tidal flow and magnetism before west

Segall et al. (1966) assessed a range of populations with a variety of basic illusions that were ‘known’ to be universally perceived

Line A was adjusted until both lines are perceived to be the same length

Segall and colleagues suggest that exposure to elements like ‘carpentered corners’ found so frequently in modern environments perpetuate this illusion

Such corners are not part of our evolutionary history

The illusion is a culturally evolved by-product

Important to note that children display cultural biases

Famous example in psychology (Bakeman et al., 1990)

Largely hunter-gatherers

Forging missions are frequent, but means adults only need to work about 3 days a week

Spend time together and engage in social contact

Mobile life prevents them from gathering possessions

Objects are valued and shared

Children’s first words are usually I (“Here take this”) and na (“Give it to me”)

West → concept of preparing a room for a new baby. In 90% of countries this is not practised, mothers lay next to infant (like Asian cultures)

Studies conducted in the 1960’s found that the North American norm for separate bedrooms was not found elsewhere

Burton & Whiting (1961) sampled 100 societies finding that only American parents provided a separate room for infants

Whiting (1964) sampled 136 different societies

Two-thirds shared bed

Majority of others shared room with parents

Co-sleeping is common in every society except Western societies

Gross motor milestones differ between Western and African infants

Ainsworth (1967) noted that Ganda infants (of Uganda) sit, crawl and walk earlier than western. Later studies have confirmed these findings standing at 7 months and independent steps at 9 (Kilbride & Kilbride, 1975)

The early development is achieved through certain practices that stimulates muscles. Ainsworth also reported earlier development of language, social behaviour and prehension (grasping)

German researchers have been conducting a series of studies contrasting, German infants and Cameroonian infants. Longitudinal studies looking development at 3- and 6-months of age

Nso infants show accelerated development relative to German infants

Most prominent difference at three months of age was sitting with support: 94.5% Nso, 6.8% German

Language development favours German children

Evidence of broad differences across cultures:

Germany: most commonly observed and valued style is the avoidant attachment style

Israeli Kibbutz: most commonly observed attachment style is the anxious/ambivalent style

Japan & Dogon in West Africa: no children showed avoidant attachment style

Easy to accept that motor development, language and attachment can differ as a consequence of experience in early months

Muscles stimulated → develop faster, talk to infant → develop language faster, not left alone (primarily with caregiver) → reactive negatively with strangers

Davidoff and colleagues have challenged the view that colours are categorised universally

Dominant view existed that colour categories are hardwired and inflexible

Colour corresponds to colour terms of the speaker’s language

Specifically, equally spaced colours are judged unequally by speakers of different languages

The Himba of Namibia do not distinguish between blue-green in colour terms

They show no evidence for discrimination between this colour boundary

They do however show discrimination between colour boundaries that English speakers do not

Studies with toddlers showed similar results

Himba toddlers also do not distinguish a blue-green contrast

Generally accepted that we motivated to view oneself positively = above-average effect. Cross et al. (1977) found that 94% of American academics rated themselves as better than the average academic

Studies in non-Western countries do not mimic these findings

Negated: Mexico (Tropp & Wright, 2003), Chile (Heine & Raineri, 2009)

Reversed: East Asia (Heine & Hamamura, 2007)

Predominant sample in psych are American undergrads

Arnett (2008) has noted that within this sample the majority are taking introductory psychology courses

Even developmental participants typically come for high-SES families

Educated Americans appear to be different to the others. Americans are highly individualistic (students are more than non-colly individuals) (Snibbe and Markus 2005)

Conformity motivations are weaker among non-college educated Americans (Stephens et al., 2007) – similar to East Asian samples

Working class Americans are more interdependent and holistic than middle-class people (Na et al., 2009)

US students have more favourable views on other groups in society than other, positive view of racial diversity, mask negative intergroup attitudes

A meta-analysis of studies comparing college students and non-college students found differences in half the phenomena studied: Attitudes, Gender perceptions, Social desirability

Nisbett, Masuda and colleagues have proposed that thinking in the West can be described as analytical whereas thinking in the East is holistic

West → people focus on salient objects and organise their environment according to categorical rules

East → perceive the world more holistically showing interest in contextual info and utilize perceptual similarities when organising their visual world

Clear relationship between culture and judgement

Task performance influenced by culture in expected way

20 second vignettes shown to Japanese and American adults and asked to describe what they had seen

Sentences coded for first mention of focal object (e.g., fish) or field (e.g., water)

Americans started sentences describing the object

Japanese described the field – 65% more than Americans

Japanese made twice as many comments about relationship between object and field

Americans unaffected by context change, Japanese made more errors when context was changed

Analytical thinking:

Attention to focal objects. Focus on the attributes of the object, Belief that the object is detached from its field, Use of formal logic, Use of abstract thought, Taxonomic categorisation, Probably rooted in Greek

Holistic thinking:

Focus on the context in general, Focus to the field surrounding an object, Interest in the relationship between object and field, Reliance on experiential knowledge rather than formal logic, Thematic categorisation, Rooted in Taoism, Chinese Buddhism and Confucianism

Unify traits into abstract descriptors e.g. “smart” and “talented” to “intelligent”

Generalisations can be contradictory e.g. Shy and outgoing

This because of social pressures to behave differently in different situations.

Also more qualifiers e.g. Often, sometimes...

Self-control

The I-Self: a sense of self as KNOWER and ACTOR: inc. the following realisations:

SELF-AWARENESS: that the self is separate from the surrounding world and has a private, inner life not accessible by others.

SELF-CONTINUITY: knowledge that the self remains the same person over time.

SELF-COHERENCE: self as a single, consistent, bounded entity

SELF-AGENCY: the self controls its own thoughts & actions

The me-self: sense of self as an object of knowledge and evaluation.

Consists of all the characteristics that make the self unique:

material characteristics e.g. Physical appearance and possessions.

psychological characteristics e.g. Desires, attitudes, beliefs, thought processes and personality traits.

social characteristics e.g. Roles and relationships with others.

categories one belongs to that are commonly used in society e.g. Gender, race, size

Many theorists argue that we can start to see I-self develop when realise that their own actions cause objects and people to react in predictable ways (Harter, 1998). SO attachment style should be important here

Most research focussed on emergence of physical self → recognition self and own physical features

12 months: infants touched mirror as if red mark nothing to do with them,amused by ‘another child’, little or no ‘nose-directed behaviour’

5 months: infants rubbed their noses or reached for their face indicating that they had a sense of ‘me’ that that exists physically and they recognised in the mirror.

Harter: Self-esteem as the discrepancy between ideal and real self

From 5/6 years children internalize others expectations of us & form an IDEAL SELF

Use IDEAL self to evaluate the REAL SELF

A discrepancy between the two can lead to low self-esteem.

Young children very positive about themselves

This because preschoolers find it difficult to distinguish between the actual and ideal self (actual vs desired abilities)

Rate abilities v. high and underestimate difficulty of tasks.

Self-esteem more realistic with age due to social comparison.

Learn to maintain high self-esteem by valuing other domains e.g. friendships.

First social category to develop

9-12 mnths: Gender differentiation:, 12-18 mnths: label genders “mummy” “daddy”, 18 months – 3 years: label own sex

By 3 well-established

Awareness of Gender stereotypes dev. v. early < 2 years

-activities, toys, clothes, colours, occupations with gender (Ruble & Martin, 1998). Some flexibility

Gender identity (2-3.5) - Label/identify gender but only based on appearance.

Gender stability (3.5-5.5) - Gender is consistent over time but not across situations. Appearance is still a factor

Gender constancy/consistency (6) - Gender is constant across time and situations. Gender appropriate behaviour.

Beliefs about what is appropriate for or typical of on'e’s own or the other gender groups. Includes personality, occupations, pastimes, behaviours

3 years already looking at world in very gender stereotypes fashion, very rigid stereotypes. Think these characteristics are defining features of being a boy or girl

Sample: focus on 3-4’s

Present children with gender stereotype scenarios, gender stereotype consistent vs inconsistent, scenarios involved: Hair, clothing, toys, adult occupations, activities, play styles, physically based roles (mummy, daddy).

measure children’s knowledge of stereotypes, whether think it’s possible to violate stereotypes

Findings - 3 year olds had some knowledge of gender roles

Awareness that norm violation possible: -over half 3-4 year olds say “no”.

Serbin et al (1993): measure 5-11 year old children’s gender stereotype knowledge and flexibility: activity and personality stereotype.

Flexibility: “Can both genders display a personality trait or activity?”

Cognitive changes: children dev. cognitive ability to integrate conflicting social cues – used to rely on gender only, now rely on other social cues to form opinions of people.

Biology (genes and hormones)

Social learning theory: parents, peers, media

Cognitive development

Parents → adults look at children through gender-tinted lenses. Infancy direct training in gender roles e.g. toys, boys -action; girls - nurturance (Will et al ‘76)

Beliefs about gender differences impact the activities the child tries Mondschein, Adolph & Tamis-LeMonda (2000):

90% of infants under 13 months dressed in sex-typed clothes (Shakin, Shakin & Sternglanz, 1985)

Room differences: boys more sports equipment, tools vehicles, machines, animals and military toys, girls more dolls, child’ furniture. (Etaugh & Liss, 1992)

Parents rarely buy ‘sex-inappropriate’ toys (Fisher-Thompson, 1993)

At 18 months: Boys receive more positive reinforcement for stereotypical toy choice (Fagot & Hagan, 1991)

Boys more positive reinforcement for assertive negative behaviours

More likely to engage in physical play with boys, pretend play with girls

In middle childhood and adolescence → achievements becomes more salient and observe how parents teach their child. Parents continue to demand more independence for boys (more likely to refuse son and help daughter immediately). Stereotypes perception of ability in school subjects

Peers → By 3 years children reinforce one another for “gender appropriate” behaviour. (praise, imitating, criticising)

Media → Aubrey & Harrison (2004)

Aim: to find out about gender stereotyping in children’s media, and capture the impact this has on children

-content analysis of 30 TV show episodes

29% lead characters F, 70.4% male

35.4% F minor characters, 64.6% male

Personality: F characters more likely to be attractive & frail

Communication activities e.g. express opinions, anger, boss, laugh at, answer questions

All higher in males than female characters

The ONLY communicative activity higher in F?

Receiving or making comments about body/beauty

SLT criticisms: Assumes children adopt gender roles / learn about stereotypes through observation, imitation, reinforcement.

Doesn’t explain developmental changes:

we have observed developmental changes e.g. in stereotype knowledge, segregation, flexibility/ rigidity.

Additional factors: cognitive changes

Cognitive changes in way children understand the world and themselves.

These affect gender role behaviour & stereotyping.

Explain developmental trends

Focus on ‘gender identity’.

Child ACTIVE in seeking out information about gender

Higher rates of anxiety disorders (Beitchman, Wilson, Johnson, Atkinson, Young & Adlaf, 2001)

Higher prevalence drug abuse and antisocial behaviours in young adults (Beitchman et al., 2001)

Language structure: phonology, syntax, morphology

Language meaning: semantics, pragmatics

Infants born with the ability to discriminate sounds of any language, "universal listeners" (Kull, 2011).

This ability declines during the first year of life between 10- to 12-months of age (Werker & Lalonde, 1998).

0-2 months - Nonspeech noises (crying, fussing), not communicative

2-4 months - Cooing, more diverse vowels, beginning of syllables

4-8 months - More obvious syllable-like units (maaaaa, mmmmmma)

6-12 months - Canonical babbling (Oller & Eilers, 1988)

12-15 months - First words

15-24 months - Complex babbling

12 – 18 months - Understands simple sentences with familiar objects & actions.

18 – 24 months - Understands simple sentences with familiar objects and actions in more complex contexts and with less adult scaffolding

By 24 months: majority of children (learning western European languages) producing at least two-word combinations, that have been described as telegraphic speech because nonessential elements are missing

By 30 months, most children are starting to use a range of basic sentence types;

Soon children will gradually include more morphemes

Comprehension of a range of abstract semantic concepts

Fluency with a range of sentence frames:

Using range of connectives appropriately

Using the right expression to refer to something, Understanding inferences, Being able to talk in different registers

Adults vary hugely when talking to children in terms of: how many words they say per hour, how many sentences they say per hour, etc

Quantity of language child vocabulary processing speed non-verbal IQ

(Marchman & Fernald, 2008; Hurtado, Marchman & Fernald, 2008).

Contingent Talk: Child directed speech that is contingent on infant’s focus of attention: in terms of meaning (about what infant is attending to) and in terms of timing (in response to infant vocalisation)

Children between 2½ and 3 can learn words from TV if someone ‘live’ sitting beside them is describing it - (Roseberry, Hirsh-Pasek, Parish-Morris & Golinkoff, 2009).

Background TV is negatively related to language in preschoolers. Amount of time spent playing with toys was ½ as long when background TV was on than for kids who had no background TV on. Parents less responsive to children’s bids for attention resulting in reduced language input & reduced “richness” of language by parents - (Anderson & Hansen, 2013)

Parent usage of diverse sentence structures promotes child word and grammar learning (Sandbank & Yoder, 2016; Szagun & Stumper, 2012).

Children whose teachers speak in more complex sentences (beginning of year) perform better in sentence comprehension (end of year) (Huttenlocher, Vasilyeva, Cymerman & Levine, 2002).

Teacher grammatical complexity → child vocabulary (Farrow et al., 2020).

Adults can be good models of sentence structure to children. Peers can also influence their friends’ language by using diff words or forming diff structures

For open-ended questioning: children need to answer with whole sentences

Children can hear various sentence models about the same content/story

Requires social skills not required by interactions with adults

Adult interaction: provides structure and guidance and security

Reciprocity, sharing, cooperation, conflict resolution,

Peer groups – working on same level, same social powers.

Size of network, density, structure of peer networks, Accepted, neglected, popular, rejected

3 methods: direct observation, report by parent or teacher, by asking child: peer nominations, ‘who is liked

Observe children in a class, record interactions, build up picture of social structure in class. Tells us status of individual children and overall structure of networks

Each symbol represents a child, No. lines indicates % of observations where they playing together, Concentric circles no. of play partners a child has, Circles = girls,Triangles =boys

Asking teacher: “who are John’s friends’. Asking children: “who are your best friends’ – ask all children in class and build up picture of reciprocated friendships. OR ask them to sort piles of all classmates into 3 piles: like, not like, neutral. Can also use to create sociogram.

Perspective taking is a developmental outcome that goes hand in hand with peer interactions and social networks.

When children start school exposed to peers who differ from them in many ways: age, ethnicity, achievement, interests, personality. Increased variety of peers help develop perspective-taking.

Perspective taking helps with communication: children better at interpreting others emotions and thoughts and consider this in dialogues.

Is the size of children’s social network related to perspective taking skill?

N = 36, 3 year olds. The Child Social Network Questionnaire

Burke et al 2022 - How many people interact with on a regular bias? Diversity of network

Findings - Children in larger networks have supervisor perspective taking skills because their network provides more opportunities to use their perspective taking skills

3-4 months: looks and touches.

6 months: peer-directed smiles and babbles

1-2 years: coordinated interaction more often, mutual imitation e.g. jumping, chasing, banging a toy. Some turn-taking.

2-3 years: LANGUAGE use words to talk about and influence peer behaviours: e.g. “Let’s play chase.”

Mildred Parten (1932): observed 2-4 year olds, identified 3-steps in social development.

NONSOCIAL PLAY: unoccupied, onlooker behaviour, solitary play

PARALLEL PLAY: limited social participation, child plays near other. Children with similar materials, does not try to influence play.

True social interaction

ASSOCIATIVE PLAY: children interacting with others while participating in the same activity

COOPERATIVE PLAY: child interacting with others in well-coordinated complementary ways that may involve sharing with and supporting each other

Parten thought these developed in stages: later appearing ones replace earlier appearing ones – subsequent research showed that all types of behaviours coexist but non-social behaviours decline with age

Smith (1978) examined types of play in preschool children in US and UK. Found that children divide their time roughly among the 3 categories: non social , parallel and social. Balance shifts towards social as they get older, into school.

Symbolic play (‘fantasy’ or ‘pretend’ play) - from 15 months

Represent an object or an event that is absent in the setting, get more complicated and narrate, preparing for more complex ‘make-believe play’, preparation for more elaborate pretend play

‘role’ or ‘socio-dramatic’ play, 2-3 years

First alone, then incorporate peers and changes over time: early in development, quite inflexible: act out real events, not substitute items, not imaginary. With age involve peers: start with doll/teddy, then another child. CAN combine ideas and roles into the more complex storyline. But need reciprocation, negotiation

When children start school exposed to peers who differ from them in many ways: age, ethnicity, achievement, interests, personality.

Increased variety of peers help develop perspective-taking

Perspective taking helps with communication: children better at interpreting others emotions and thoughts and consider this in dialogues.

Engage in games with rules and make-believe play – understand roles and can cooperate.

good-natured, sociable play, NOT aggressive, found in young of many mammal species, originate in style of parent-infant interactions esp. fathers-sons, more common in boys than girls (fathers play more roughly with boys than girls).

Important for establishing a dominance hierarchy within groups of playmates. A stable ordering of group members that predicts who will win when conflict arises, children can assess other children to see who will win if conflict arises.

Impact of covid on children’s emotion and behaviour regulation

Due to reduced opportunities for peer interactions at crucial time points

Education Endowment Fund

Why is peer interaction at young age so important?

To adults: Friendship indicated by attachment and trust

Involves companionship, sharing, understanding thoughts and feelings, caring for, comforting.

In young children starts off more concrete: based around a shared activity

A friend is someone who likes you, who you spend time with playing, share toys with them. Viewed concretely: so easily begun, e.g. by starting to play together, saying “hi”. Friendship not have long-term, enduring quality: can dissolve when hit, not share

Idea of friendship become more complex and psychologically based. Friendship us mutually agreed on relationship. Each child responds to others needs. Getting it started more difficult since both children have to want friends. Like each other’s personal qualities

Trust becomes defining feature. Violation of trust causes rifts in friendship

Teenagers stress these in friendship, intimacy, loyalty and friends important for relieving psychological distress

Consequences of having friends and rejection in childhood - consequences for later educational achievement, help for dealing with stress, provide foundation for future relationships. BUT some friendships linked to increased and asocial behaviour

Rejected-aggressive children – severe conduct problems, antagonsistic. Driven by: poor perspective taking, poor emotion regulation, antagonistic.

Rejected-withdrawn children – passive, socially awkward, overwhelmed by social anxiety – as a result feel lonely, submissive style leads them open to bullies. Reduced social interaction as a result of being rejected – exacerbates problem. Related to poor developmental outcomes: in adolescence do poorly at school - acting out, drop out, bullies

Act as a reference group: adolescence a time of uncertainty about self, peers provide support & guidance on defining one’s role and one’s values.

2Peer groups support feelings of self-worth:

Three levels of peer groups (Brown, 1989):

Dyads – pairs of close friends or lovers

Cliques – groups of several friends who interact frequently, similar in background, attitudes, values

Crowds – larger collectives of people with similar images & affinities e.g. jocks, brains, druggies

Brown et al. (1986): conformity to peers does occur. Pressure to conform to peers regarding:

Appearance, Clothes, Hair, Places go, Dating, Pro-social rather than antisocial activities (e.g. smoking, drinking).

Asch (1951): participants had to make judgements about lengths of lines

Confederate in the group

Judgements influenced by preceding judgements made by the group.

1/3 conform to the group

Costanzo & Shaw, 1966: Asch technique

Evidence of peer conformity in adolescence

Costanzo & Shaw, 1966: Asch technique, 7-21 years:

Conformity peak at around 11-13 years

Berndt (1979): 11-12 and 14-15 year olds

imagine peers encouraging them in antisocial (e.g. stealing) OR pro-social activity (e.g. helping someone with homework)

What would they do??

FINDING: conformity to social pressures: peaked at 11-12 years

Conformity to anti-social pressures: peaked at 14-15 years.

Why? At 11-12 see strong need for rules

At 14-15 a result of struggle for autonomy from parents

By 6 months infants understand that people have goals, didn’t form goal expectations when hand was replaced by a metal rod

14-18 month old infants can discriminate between intentional and accidental actions. Imitated almost twice as man of the adult’s intentional actions as her accidental ones

Demonstration (target) and Demonstration (intention) groups did not significantly differ from one another in number of tasks they reproduced

By 18 months, infants imitated intended (but failed) goal

The groups (human intention vs mechanical intention) differed significantly in their tendency to produce the target act.

18 month olds have some understanding of human goals and intentions

18-month-olds helped an adult achieve a goal

Level 1: perspective-taking (You and I see diff things) - By 18 months, children will fit their perspective to yours. Crawl around barrier to see what you’re looking at.

24 months, point for hidden objects (O’Neill, 1996)

12 months, point at fallen objects (Liszkowski et al., 2008)

Dennett (1978) - true belief tasks would be too easy to pass and would not demonstrate anything of theoretical importance. The only way to test the ability to impute mental states was to test the understanding of false beliefs.

Can observe and measure the development of language referring to desires or beliefs

Desire terms (e.g., “want”, “like”) appear before Belief terms (e.g., “think”, “know”, “remember”), suggesting developmental progression (Wellman & Bartsch, 1995)

To properly test need a case where belief is different from reality (false belied). Generally accepted that 1st order develops by the age of 4

Liu, Wellman, Tardif, & Sabbagh, 2008 - Theory of mind development in Chinese children: A meta-analysis of false-belief understanding across cultures and languages.

Motive (e.g., deceit) for transfer is made explicit

Time frame is clarified - when she gets back, where will she look first?

Children move the objects themselves

Target object removed completely (no ‘right’ answer)

Language abilities are considered

Clements and Porter (1994)

ToM as an Implicit concept (non-conscious) rather than an explicit concept (conscious)

Used a traditional test of ToM

Measured where the child 'looked' rather than relying on verbal answers.

Results – children of 3 and a half years correctly look at the box on the left-hand side (have an implicit understanding of the task).

Special case: Autism Spectrum Disorder

Little to no eye contact, Language delays, Narrow interests, Less likely to engage in play; fewer friendships, Find it difficult to grasp the distinction between what is mental (held in the mind) and what is physical or literal

This level allows the understanding of jokes (versus lies) and sarcasm

Effective bullying, deception (Deception – trying to make someone believe that something is true when in fact it is false; Baron-Cohen, 2001)

Appears around 6 – 8 years of age

Language ability (Lohmann & Tomasello, 2003)

Deaf children of hearing parents (Meristo et al. in 2007)

Attachment (Fonagay et al., 1997; Meins, 1997)

Parenting style (Hughes et al., 1999, Ruffman et al., 1999, Vinden, 2001)

Preschoolers with older siblings (Perner et al., 1994; Ruffman et al., 1998)

Parent-child conversation (Tompkins et al., 2018)

Social context, social status or relationship to the other person (Rizzo & Killen, 2018; Seehagen et al., 2018; Sudo & Farrar, 2020)